January 14 In History
83 BCE: Birthdate of Marcus Antonius, who is better known as Mark Antony (often pronounced Anthony). Mark Antony is credited by some with recognizing Herod as a Jewish leader and elevating him accordingly. Later, he would side with Cleopatra in her attempts to claim some of Eretz Israel for her own.
1129: Formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes. Troyes was the home town of the great Jewish commentator Rashi who died there a quarter of a century before the council was held. At the time of the meeting, Rabbinu Tam, the most famous of Rashi’s grandson was 29 years old and living at the village of Ramerupt, which was just outside of Troyes. The term “Templar” refers to the Temple of Solomon. In its early days, the Order saw itself as a protector of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple. When it broadened its activity the members of the order learned about banking from the Jews. Unlike others related to crusading activities, the Templars did not engage in the wholesale slaughter of Jews.
1301: Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Arpad dynasty in Hungary. While his predecessor on the Hungarian throne had approved a variety of ant-Jewish rules and regulations, Andrew took a different tact “when, in the privilegium granted by him to the community of Posonium (Bratislava), that the Jews in that city should enjoy all the liberties of citizens.” Things went downhill for the Jews of Hungary after Andrew’s death and they were expelled from the kingdom in 1349 under the belief that the Jews were responsible for the Black Death.
1514: Pope Leo X issued a papal bull against slavery. This is the same Pope Leo who clashed with Martin Luther and who offered protection to the Jews at various times including when he reconfirmed the privileges of French Jews despite opposite from the local bishops and banned the wearing of the Jew badge in France
1601: The Church burned Hebrew books and manuscripts in
Rome
. These book burnings destroyed priceless parts of the Jewish heritage. One of the puzzling questions is why do Christians have this almost pathological fear of Jewish books.
1639: The "Fundamental Orders", the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut. “No Jew, however, was recorded in colonial Connecticut until 1659 when ‘David, the Jew’, was mentioned in the Hartford legislative records.” Hartford was one of the four cities that were covered by The Fundamental orders.
1690: The clarinet is invented in
Germany
. No, the Jews did not invent the clarinet. But from Benny Goodman, to Artie Shaw to the Kings of Klezmer, can you imagine the clarinet without Jews or Jews without the “licorice stick.”
1711: One of the largest fires that ever occurred in Frankfurt broke out in the Judengasse (Jews Alley). The fire started at about 8 p.m. in the House Eichel (German: Acorn) owned by the senior Rabbi Naphtali Cohen.
1745: Birthdate of Gershom Mendez Seixas, the son of Isaac Mendez Seixas) and Rachel Levy, daughter of Moses Levy, an early New York merchant who gained fame as an American rabbi and fervent supporter of the American Revolution.
1768: Aaron Hart, who is considered to be the father of Canadian Jewry, wed his cousin Dorothea Catherine Judah in Portsmouth, England. After the marriage, Uriah and Samuel Judah who were both his cousins and brothers-in-law emigrated to Trois-Rivières, Canada. The large family included four sons: Moses, Ezekiel, Benjamin, and Alexander (Asher), and five daughters, the latter educated by the Ursuline Catholic sisters in Trois-Rivières. One daughter, Chavah, married a Judah and two others, Sarah and Charlotte, married Samuel and Moses David respectively, sons of Montreal's Lazarus David. Seventeen sixty-eight was also the same year in which Hart joined with others for found Shearith Israel in Montreal.
1798: Birthdate of the poet and writer of Isaac de Costa. A Dutch born member of a Sephardic family, de Costa, converted to Christianity. Oddly enough, one of his major ventures into the world of prose was a work on Jewish History entitled
Israel
and the Gentiles.
1821: Birthdate of Salomon Hermann Mosenthal, the native of Kassel, whose operatic works included “Die Maccaber” or “The Maccabees” which he created with Anton Rubinstein.
1851: In Cayuga County, NY, the prosecution rested its case during the trial of John Baham who is charged with having murdered Nathan Adler, an industrious and well-liked Jewish peddler from Syracuse.
1853: In a letter published today, Dr. George Bethune described the conditions of the seven or eight thousand Jews living in Rome under “shockingly oppressed” conditions. At that time, as he pointed out, the government of Rome was under the control of the Vatican.
1858: Birthdate of social activist Hannah Greenbaum Solomon. Born to German immigrants in
Chicago
,
Illinois
she became a leader in the fight to expand and protect women's rights.
1860: It was reported today that two Jewish businessmen named Magnus and Guedalla challenged one another to single combat during a heated dispute over who should control a company called the Great Eastern
1861: Birthdate of Mehmed VI the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He came to the throne in the closing days of World War I. His representatives signed the Treaty of Sèvres, the peace treaty marking the end of the war for the Ottoman Empire. In signing the treaty, the Turkish sultan recognized the mandates that ended the empire including the British mandate over
Palestine
that was a key step on the path to creation of the state of
Israel
. The sultan lost his throne to Turkish revolutionaries who were angered by the signing of the treaty.
1866: In
Switzerland
, Jewish rights were ratified.
Switzerland
had been the scene of some of the worst massacres during the Black Plague and a hotbed of anti-Jewish edicts. This legislation was only passed after the
United States
,
Britain
and
France
refused to sign treaties until their anti-Jewish cantons were repealed.
1878: Among the payments made from the New York City Treasury today was on of $7,976.66 to the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Society.
1888(1stof Shevat, 5648): Rosh Chodesh Shevat.
1889: Webster Hall, which is owned by Charles Goldstein, is scheduled to host the third annual reception of the Hoffman House Barkeepers.
1892: The annual convention of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of America opened this morning at the Lindell Hotel in St. Louis, MO.
1892: Mrs. J.B. Eiseman, Mrs. Edward Pels and Mrs. G. Eiseman, of Baltimore, MD, met with Caroline Harrison, the wife of President Benjamin Harrison in Washington, DC at which time they invited her to attend upcoming Hebrew Orphan Asylum Bazar. Mrs. Harrison said that if possible she would attend. In any event, she would “send a donation of flowers from the White House Conservatories.” (President Harrison was engaged in a re-election campaign which might have been the reason she met with the Jewish ladies. In fairness, her refusal to commit to coming may have reflected her weakened condition that came from her battle with Tuberculosis which would take her life in October)
1892: The three days of ceremonies marking the opening of the Jewish Maternity’s facility in Philadelphia, PA, came to a close today.
1892: It was reported today that Adoph L. Sanger’s failure to gain election as the President of the Board of Education had nothing to do with the fact that he was Jewish. Rather it was a case that the Tammany “machine” had decided it wanted to the incumbent to retain the position.
1894: It was reported today that Dr. Joseph Krauskopf, one of the leading rabbis in Philadelphia, is coming to New York City to deliver an address sponsored by the Young Men’s Association of Ahawath Chesed
1894: President James H. Hoffman presided over the tenth annual meeting of the Hebrew Technical Institute which was held this morning in New York City.
1896: The inaugural event of this social season hosted by the Young Folks’ League of the Hebrew Asylum is scheduled to take place this evening at the Lexington Assembly Rooms in NYC.
1897(11thof Shevat, 5657): Seventy-eight year old Leon Sternberger, the “cantor emeritus of Temple Beth-El” passed away today. Born in Bavaria in 1810, he “was a pupil of Solomon Sulzer, the father of modern Jewish religious music.” After serving as a cantor in Warsaw, he came to the United States in 1849, where he first served Anshe Chesed,
1897: It was reported today that in Austria, Christian and Jewish witnesses swear the same oath before testifying. However, Christian witnesses take the oath “before a crucifix between two lighted candles” while Jews take the oath with their right hands on a Bible open to the Ten Commandments.
1898(20thof Tevet, 5658): Eighty-nine year old Lazarus Straus, “the senior member of L. Straus & Sons” passed away today. Born in Bavaria in 1809 to a prominent Jewish family, he came to the United States after the failure of the Revolutions of 1848 in which he supported the liberals He arrived in Talbotton, GA in 1853 and, after a series of business ventures in the South moved to New York City 1865. The crowning point of his business career came when his firm acquired controlling interest in R.H. Macy & Co. A generous philanthropist, he was a leader of the Jewish community who actually lit the Eternal Light at Temple Beth-El during the sanctuary’s dedication. His proudest accomplishment may be his family which include his sons Isidor, Nathan who is the President of the Board of Health and Oscar who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
1898: As the Dreyfus Affair continues to inflame France, a group of law students demonstrated in front of the offices of the Aurore protesting the writings of Emile Zola.
1899: It was reported today that Magistrate Sims has resolved the trespass charge brought by Mrs. Esther Wallenstein, President of the Hebrew Infant Asylum. The Magistrate agreed that the watchmen employed by the builders who had been hired to remodel the asylum’s building “had no legal right to be on the premises” he only fined the one dollar because they had every reason to believe they had such a right. In other words, they were innocent pawns in a struggle between Mrs. Wallenstein and the builders, John Webber & Sons.
1899: Temple Isaiah, a Reform congregation in Chicago, Illinois, dedicated a school building. The structure was attached to the synagogue which had been designed by Dankmar Adler.
1902:Daniel Joseph Jaffé “became associate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers (A.M.I.C.E.)” following which me moved to Hong Kong where among other things, he would build what was, at its time, the largest dam in the Far East.
1913: It was announced at the meeting of the Council of the United Synagogue that the selection committee had decided to submit to the Electoral College the names of two candidates only, Joseph H. Hertz of New York and Dr. Hyamson of London, for the office of chief rabbi, coupling with this resolution a strong recommendation in favor of Dr. Hertz.
1915: Birthdate of game show producer Mark Goodson
1917: “At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the National Jewish Home for Consumptives, Dr. Adolf Meyer of New York said that unless necessary precautions were taken there was a great danger of tuberculosis being increased in this country by immigration after the war.”
1923: The New York Times reported that “George Barsky, proprietor of the Hotel Allenby located just outside of the Jaffe Gate in Jerusalem” has arrived in New York for a month long stay during which he plans to raise funds to build a new, modern hotel in Jerusalem that will have 500 rooms with 200 baths, a hot water heating system and all of the other amenities that Westerners connect with a first-class hostelry including a restaurant, billiard room and ballroom for dancing. Barsky sees Jerusalem and Palestine as prime travel destinations and has high hopes for the development of the tourist industry in “the holy land.”
1938: In Berlin, Harold and Lily Wolkowitz Kartiganer gave birth to Esther Kartiganer who came to United States at the age of one where she eventually became the senior producer for “60 Minutes” who “became entangled in a controversy over a program that raised questions about President George W. Bush’s military service during the Vietnam War” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1938: The Palestine Post reported that one Arab constable was shot and another wounded by Arab bandits during a search at Tulkarm and Kalkilya. Arms and ammunition were found and a number of Arabs were brought before the newly established
Military Court
in
Jerusalem
and sentenced. According to the
Jerusalem
correspondent of the Egyptian press, a special committee was appointed by the British government to study the question of the Jewish settlement in
Transjordan
. Mr. H. St. John ("Hai Abdullah") Philby, the noted British Muslim who resided at Jedda, told the Arab press that he laments the recent growth of hostility between the Jewish and Muslim peoples, despite their common Semitic origin and their friendly relations in the past. He recommended the abolition of the Mandate and the creation of a National Government in
Palestine
which should permit Jewish immigration, in accordance with the economic and public needs of the country. St. John Philby was the father of the notorious spy, Kim Philby.
1939: Master teacher and pianist Rosina Lhévinne performed in a two-piano recital with her husband to mark the 40th anniversary of both their marriage and their professional collaboration.
1940: In a column entitled “Season In Palestine” Dr. Peter Gradenwitz, described recent musical events in the Holy Land including a series of concerts at the Jerusalem “Bezalel National Museum,” the presentation of a full program by the Palestine Symphony Orchestra without a conductor in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and a performance of Smetana’s “Tabor” by the Radio Orchestra which was introduced by Dr. Kadlec, the Jerusalem consul General of Czechoslovakia. The latter took on special significance because of the fate of the Czechs at the hand of the Nazis and Smetana’s relationship to “Hatikvah.”
1940: Of 880 Jewish Polish taken prisoner, 100 were shot on the march to prison. The next day approximately 400 more killed while 40 escaped. The day after, almost 150 more were murdered.
1942: The Nazis ordered 1,600 Jews from Ixbica Kujawska, in western
Poland
to report to a public place of assembly. The Jewish council warned the citizens about what was happening. The Germans shot the entire council. The rest were taken to Chelmno and gassed by the SS, local gendarmes, and Gestapo. Ten transports of about 80 people each were gassed and buried at Chelmno
1943: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and United States President Franklin Roosevelt met at
Casablanca
,
Morocco
, to discuss the future Allied invasion of
Western Europe
. News of the meeting buoys the spirits of Jews, who hope the war may soon be over.
Roosevelt
, though, proposes to French North African official General Noguès and later to a leader of the Free French Forces, General Giraud that the French government in
North Africa
should discriminate against local Jews just as Hitler did in the 1930s. Roosevelt specifically states, twice--once to Noguès and separately to Giraud--that "the number of Jews engaged in the practice of the professions...should be definitely limited to the percentage that the Jewish population in North Africa bears to the whole of the North African population." President Roosevelt adds that limiting the number of Jews in the professions "would further eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore toward the Jews in
Germany
...."
1943: Rabbi Menachem Zemba, “called on the Jews of Warsaw to revolt” saying that "we must resist the enemy on all fronts". He also warned that "we are prohibited by Jewish law from betraying others...” Zemba was killed (19 Nissan) a few days after the revolt began. He had refused the offer of Catholic priests to help him and flee with another two rabbis, believing that he must remain until the end with his fellow Jews. Zemba had published over 20 manuscripts. Many others were destroyed in the ghetto.”
1943: The Jewish Council members in Lomza, refused to take part in the selection process. The Germans were forced to select for themselves those Jews who should be taken away.
1943: When the Jewish Council and Jewish police in Lomza, Poland, refuse to provide the Gestapo with 40 Jews, Gestapo agents make the selections, and include two Council members. A further 8000 Lomza Jews are deported to
Auschwitz
.
1943: Birthdate of Dr. Ralph Marvin Steinman, the native of Montreal, who became a noted American cell biologist and Noble Prize winner for his work on the human immune response. (As reported by William Grimes.)
1945: The SS evacuates the remaining prisoners from the concentration camp at
Plaszów
,
Poland
.
1948: Anna "Ans" van Dike a Dutch Jewish Nazi-collaborator was executed at the age of 42.
(I cannot find any details about this. If any of you know about this person, please forward the information to me. Thanks.)
1948: A postal delivery truck filled with explosives and driven by pro-Arab volunteers was driven into the center of
Haifa
where it exploded. These volunteers included recently released German POW’s and deserters from the British Army.
1948: Department store pioneer Beatrice Auerbach, longtime proprietor at G. Fox & Co. in
Hartford
,
CT
, received the Tobe Award for outstanding contributions to public service in the retail field
1949: In Miami, FL, Sylvia Sarah and Clarence Norman Kasdan gave birth to Lawrence Edward Kasdan the writer, director and producer who has given us some marvelous films including “The Big Chill” and some not so marvelous including several episodes of “Star Wars.”
1949: Dr. Edwin J. Cohn of the Harvard Medical School is scheduled to deliver the Julius Stieglitz Memorial Lecture today at the University of Chicago.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Soviet Union told the world that nine leading doctors five of them Jewish had "confessed" to the murder of Andrei Zhdanov, the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and Alexander Shcherbakov, the secretary of the Moscow Committee, and possibly other Soviet leaders. One of the accused was the chief medical officer at the Kremlin. This announcement was understood as the so-called "Doctors' Plot," a crude attack on Soviet Jewry by Stalin. Fears were expressed that such "revelations" would lead to an anti-Jewish purge and hysteria, and a possible forced "resettlement" of Soviet Jews in outlying areas. While Izvestia had already demanded "a special status for Jews," the free world and Jewish press described the charges as false, "fantastic" and completely unsubstantiated.
1954: Marilyn Monroe married Joe DiMaggio. Ms. Monroe would later convert to Judaism and marry playwright Arthur Miller.
1960: Birthdate of Eric Alterman, the creator of the political weblog “Altercation”
1978(6th of Shevat, 5738): British athlete Harold Abrahams passed away. Born in 1899, Abrahams gained prominence as an Olympic runner during the 1920 and 1924 games. He gained a wide measure of fame when his youthful accomplishments were featured in the film “Chariots of Fire.”
http://www.academia.edu/716562/_Too_Semitic_or_thoroughly_Anglicised_The_Life_and_Career_of_Harold_Abrahams
1984(10th of Shevat, 5744): Paul Ben Haim, prominent Israeli composer, passed away at the age of 86. http://www.milkenarchive.org/people/view/all/591/Ben-Haim,+Paul
1987: Israeli warplanes attacked Palestinian targets near the Syrian border today in the fourth raid on Lebanon in 10 days. The raid came hours after an attack by Lebanese guerrillas on a position manned by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia east of Sidon in which three people were reported killed and 10 wounded.
1988: Today an Israeli builder who is directly affected by the loss of his Arab workers sat in a trailer on a nearly abandoned construction site, grumbling about the workers from Gaza who did not show up for work for the 10th day in a row. ''I guess they couldn't get out of the Gaza Strip,'' he said. ''I tell you, if I were running things around here, I'd lock that whole area up. We built this country ourselves, and we can do it again.'' The past month of rioting in the occupied territories, which has kept thousands of Palestinians away from jobs in Israel, has been a bitter reminder to Israelis that the country's economy is largely dependent on its political foes.
1992: In “Scuds Are Gone, but the Israelis' Fears Linger” Clyde Haberman describes the condition of the Israeli psyche a year after what became known as Gulf War I.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/21/world/scuds-are-gone-but-the-israelis-fears-linger.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1994(2nd of Shevat, 5754): Grigory Ivanov was stabbed to death by a terrorist in the industrial zone at the Erez junction, near the Gaza Strip. HAMAS claimed responsibility for the attack.
1998: In “A Jew Stalin Killed Now Symbolizes Rebirth” Alessandra Stanley described the festival being held in Moscow in memory of “the great Yiddish actor and theater director Solomon Mikhoels was slain by Stalin's secret police, spelling the death of the Jewish theater in the Soviet Union.” Stanley provides a full description of the role of Mikhoels in Russian life, the attack by Stalin and the conditions of Jewry in today’s post-Communist Russia.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/14/theater/a-jew-stalin-killed-now-symbolizes-rebirth.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
1999: Today, Jerry Falwell said "the Anti-Christ is probably alive today and is a male Jew." In his speech, he continued: "Is he alive and here today? Probably, because when he appears during the Tribulation period he will be a full-grown counterfeit of Christ. Of course he'll be Jewish. Of course he'll pretend to be Christ. And if in fact the Lord is coming soon, and he'll be an adult at the presentation of himself, he must be alive somewhere today."
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History by James Carroll.
2002(1st of Shevat, 5762): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
2002:A terrorist, named Raed al-Karmi, the 27-year-old leader of a local Palestinian militia, was killed by a bomb hidden beside a cemetery wall near his house.
2002: Herb Gray completed his term as Deputy Prime Minister of Canada and retired from Parliament.
2004: Former Enron finance chief, Andrew Fastow, pleaded guilty to conspiracy as he accepted a 10-year prison sentence.
2004: A young Palestinian mother, feigning a limp and requesting medical help, blew herself up today at the entrance to a security inspection center for Palestinian workers, killing four Israeli security personnel and wounding seven people, the Israeli military said. The bomber, Reem al-Reyashi, 22, said in video released after her attack that ''it was always my wish to turn my body into deadly shrapnel against the Zionists and to knock on the doors of heaven with the skulls of Zionists.'' Ms. Reyashi left behind a son aged 3, and a year-old daughter.
2006(14th of Tevet, 5766): Academy Award winning actress Shelly Winters passed away.
http://www.biography.com/people/shelley-winters-9534774
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/14/AR2006011400648_pf.html
2006: Skater Sasha Cohen won her first national gold medal at the U.S. Championships Saturday night in
St. Louis
.
2007: The Sunday New York Times book section featured a review of About Alice by Calvin Trillin, a memoir about his wife Alice Trillin who died at the age of 63 after twenty-five year battle with lung cancer. The Times also featured a review of Heist: Superlobbyist Jack Abramoff, His Republican Allies, and the Buying of
Washington
by Peter Stone.
2007: The front page of the Sunday Chicago Tribune featured an article by Ron Grossman entitled “Echoes of history: Holocaust voices resurface at
IIT
” that recounted the story of Professor David Boder who went to
Europe
in 1946 and electronically recorded the experiences of Holocaust survivors.
2008: In
Washington
,
D.C.
Journalist Charles Enderlin, the
Jerusalem
bureau chief for channel
France
2, discusses and signs The Lost Years: Radical Islam, Intifada, and Wars in the
Middle East
.
2008: Sports Illustrated reported that “Will Bynum ex-Georgia Tech basketball player is in hot water in Israel where he plays for Maccabi Tel Aviv. He was arrested after allegedly driving into some outside a bar. The victim survived. Bynum says he’s innocent.” In a departure from the tolerance Americans show for such behavior an official of Maccabi Tel Aviv told the media that “Bynum will no longer wear a Maccabi shirt.” The same magazine also published a column entitled “A Changeup for Bud’s Boys” advocating the purchase of the Chicago Cubs by Mark Cuban, the multi-millionaire grandson of Jewish immigrants from
Russia
.
2009: The Leo Baeck Institute and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research present a screening of
“What If? The Helena Mayer Story” followed by a discussion led by filmmaker Semyon Pinkhasov and James Traub, a journalist specializing in the responsibility of nations toward their citizens. Helena Mayer was a fencing instructor at
Scripps
College
. She became
Germany
's woman fencing champion in 1930 and won a silver medal in the Berlin Olympics in 1936. She then settled in the
US
, became a citizen, and won the US Women's National Fencing Championship eight times.
2009: The Jewish film festival season kicks off with the opening of the 9th Atlanta Jewish Film Festival and 18th annual New York Jewish Film Festival
2009:
Israel
Radio reported that the IDF was turning up the heat on Hamas this morning, with ground forces progressing slowly to prevent civilian casualties. The IAF had attacked some sixty targets in the Gaza Strip overnight, Israel Radio reported. The targets included 30 terrorists smuggling tunnels, weapons storage facilities and rocket launch squads.
2009: Palestinian terrorists continued to attack Israeli civilian areas today, firing 18 projectiles by late afternoon, including a phosphorous mortar shell that hit the Eshkol region. In the latest attack, Kassams hit open areas near
Ashdod
and
Ashkelon
. Earlier, a rocket fell near a kibbutz in the Sdot Negev region. In the afternoon, two Grad rockets hit the Shfela region, in the central district, while
Ashdod
,
Ashkelon
, Sderot and
Beersheba
were also hit. No one was wounded and no damage was reported in the attacks. Although dozens of Grad-type rockets have plagued the cities during the conflict, defense officials have said that the Islamic group was nearing the end of its supply.
2009: The New York Times featured a review of Never Tell A Lie by Hallie Ephron.
2009:Gottschalks, which founded by German Jewish immigrant Emil Gottschalk in 1904 as a dry goods store in downtown Fresno, California, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
2009: The Museum of Memory and Welcome was inaugurated today near Nardo, in southern Italy.
Israel
's ambassador to
Italy
and
Rome
's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, joined local officials for the ceremony. The museum, commemorating Jewish Holocaust refugees, opened near the Italian town that gave them shelter on their way to
Palestine
. Between 1943 and 1947, as many as 150,000 Jews fleeing
Europe
for
Palestine
, then still under British control, found shelter in and around Nardo, in the heel
Italy
's boot. The museum is in the seacoast
village
of
Santa Maria
al Bagno, one of the main refugee centers where Jewish institutions, including a synagogue, canteen, orphanage and hospital, were set up. Three newly restored murals painted by one of the refugees, Romanian-born Zivi Miller, form the centerpiece of the museum. The murals were painted on a long-abandoned building. One mural is of a lighted menorah; one depicts the journey of Jews from southern
Italy
toward
Palestine
; and the third shows a Jewish mother and child asking a British soldier to allow them to enter. Di Segni in his speech thanked local officials for keeping to the opening date "despite the grave international situation." Local media said police stopped four neo-fascist youths who tried to distribute anti-Israel flyers during the ceremony.
2009: The first stage adaptation of My Name Is Asher Lev “debuts on professional stage in Philadelphia, PA.”
2009: Three rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon
2010: At the New York Jewish Film Festival, the U.S. premiere of a “Ahead of Time,” a documentary that tells the story of Ruth Gerber. “Born in Brooklyn in 1911, Ruth Gruber had an extraordinary career as a foreign correspondent and photojournalist spanning seven decades. The first journalist to enter the Soviet Arctic (in 1935), she escorted Holocaust refugees to America in ’44, covered the Nuremberg trials in ’46, and reported on the plight of the ship Exodus in ’47.”
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