January 21 In History
763: Thirteen years after coming to power, the Abbasids defeated the Alids at the Battle of Bakhamra, ending this challenge to their Caliphate. The Abbasid Dynasty lasted for approximately 500 and ruled an area extending from Central Asia on the east to North Africa on the west which meant they controlled all of the Jewish communities outside of Europe. They built Baghdad and according to some, power in the Jewish world shifted to those living in this new Moslem power center.
1189: Philip II, Henry II and Richard Lion-Hearted initiated The Third Crusade. The Third Crusade took an exceptionally harsh toll on the Jews of England. Although the third crusade became famous in song and fable, it was a failure. Unfortunately, it did not end the crusading spirit. More crusades would follow which meant more misery for the Jews of Europe and the
Middle East
.
1306: Phillip the Fair of France issued secret orders today for his officials to prepare for the expulsion of his Jewish subjects and the confiscation of their property. Phillip found that his treasury had been depleted by his wars with the Flemish and he saw this as a way of replenishing his treasury. Under the terms of the expulsion any Jews found after the
July 22, 13
06
(10thof Av) were to be executed
1393:The Jews of Majorca were guaranteed protection by the governor who “issued an edict for their protection, providing that a citizen who should injure a Jew should be hanged, and that a knight for the same offense should be subjected to the strappado.”
1495:Isaac ben Judah Abravanel and King Alfonso sailed from
Naples
to Mazzara near
Sicily
. The city of
Mazzazra
was given as a gift from Ferdinand of Spain to Alfonso. While there, news reached both Abravanel and Alfonso that Charles VIII had taken
Naples
. The French rioted against and looted the Jewish community almost wiping it out. Many Jews were sold as slaves, and many were forced to convert to Christianity. Abravanel later wrote, "My entire enormous wealth was stolen."
1749: Birthdate of Chaim Volozhin, a disciple of the Valna Gaon. Also known as Reb Cahim he was the founder of the Volozhin Yeshiva, which provided the “template” for similar academies throughout much of what was at that time part of Poland and the Russian Empire.
1793:
Prussia
and
Russia
signed a treaty that portioned
Poland
. All of a sudden,
Russia
had a large Jewish population, something which her rulers had not bargained for and did not want.
1812: Birthdate of Moses Hess, Born in
Germany
, Hess, was an author, socialist and forerunner of the Zionist movement. In his book
Rome
and
Jerusalem
published in 1862, he expressed the belief that German anti-Semitism was based on race and nationhood. He advised Jews to accept the fact and revive their own state in Eretz
Israel
. Hess, a socialist, had worked with Marx and Engels. He grew disillusioned with the idea that a "progressive society would eradicate anti-Semitism." He passed away in 1875.
1831 (7th of Shevat, 5591): Author Achim von Arnim passed away. Von Arnim was not Jewish but he incorporated the Golem into his works thus helping this Jewish myth to move into the general European culture.
1841: Birthdate of Edward Rosenwasser, the native of Bohemia, who gained fame as Edward Rosewater the Republican Party leader and editor of the Omaha (Nebraska) Bee. Rosewater played a minor role in one of the great moments of U.S. History – the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation. While serving as the telegrapher at the White House, he was the one who actually sent President Lincoln’s words out over the wires to the world.
1847: Birthdate of Lionel Jonas Cohen, oldest brother of famed musician Frederic Hymen Cowen.
1858: Birthdate of Joseph Krauskopf, the native of Prussia who came to the United States in 1872 and enrolled in the first class of Hebrew Union College in 1875.
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/people/krauskopf-joseph.html
1860: Punch reported that a dispute has broken out between two Jewish businessmen – Lazarus Simon Magnus and Henry Guedalla – over control over the Great Eastern Steamship Company. In one exchange of letters, Mr. Magnus challenged Mr. Guedalla to a duel.
1861: David Levy Yulee, the first Jew elected to the United States Senate withdrew from that body when Florida seceded and joined the Confederacy. Yulee, who married a Christian and raised his children in the faith of his wife, then joined the Confederate cause as a Senator.
1863: Union General-in-Chief Henry W. Halleck wrote to Grant to explain the rescission of the order #11, stating that "The President has no objection to your expelling traitors and Jew peddlers, which, I suppose was the object of your order; but as it in terms proscribed an entire religious class, some of whom are fighting in our ranks, the President deemed it necessary to revoke it." Captain Philip Trounstine of the Ohio Volunteer Cavalry, being unable in good conscience to round up and expel his fellow Jews, resigned his army commission, saying he could "no longer bear the Taunts and malice of his fellow officers… brought on by … that order." The officials responsible for the United States government's most vicious anti-Jewish actions ever were never dismissed, admonished or, apparently, even officially criticized for the religious persecution they inflicted on innocent citizens.
1864: Birthdate of
Israel
Zangwill the noted Anglo-Jewish author and Zionist whose literary career in the United States was launched when he wrote “Children of the Ghetto.
1864: Apparently Jews were a significant part of the population of Utah since in a report from Great Salt Lake City, it was noted that “there are two subjects…which Jew and Gentile..consider of more than ordinary importance” when it comes to legislative action – bills concerning mining claims and general corporation.
1871: It was reported today that a popular Jewish peddler named Frank who sold to customers throughout Queens County, New York, has died of wounds inflicted by an unknown assailant who shot him while traveling to his home in Flushing. Since nothing has been found missing, authorities assume that the motive was not robbery but no suspects are in custody at this time.
1871: Establishment of Emanuel Jewish Cemetery in
Des Moines
,
Iowa
. The site is adjacent to the northwest corner of
Woodland
Cemetery
at
Woodland
and Harding, just northwest of downtown
Des Moines
.
1874(3rdof Shevat, 5634): Daniel Joseph Jaffe died in Nice, France. Jaffe had settled in Belfast in 1852 where he had become a successful businessman. He was the father of Otto and Martin Jaffe. Martin bought a plot Belfast’s City Cemetery for his father’s internment. This plot was the origin of the city’s Jewish Cemetery.
1877: The 25th annual meeting of the B’nai Brit of the United States began in Cincinnati, Ohio with 100 delegates in attendance.
1878:Birthdate of Simon Glazer, the native of Lithuania who served as the Rabbi for Congregation Bnai Israel in Des Moines, Iowa from 1902 to 1905 before moving on to congregations in Toledo, Montreal, Seattle, Kansas City and New York City. He passed away in 1938.
1882: The BILU Movement took root in
Russia
. The Russian students at the
University
of
Khrakov
formed their own Zionist group called BILU (initials for House of Jacob Let Us Rise and Go) which called for active settlement of the Eretz Israel by agricultural pioneers. The first group of 14 arrived July 6 the next year, hiring themselves out as agricultural laborers. They believed it was possible to start a worldwide movement to encourage settlement in Eretz Israel.
1887: Henry M. Stanley left London for Cairo as he prepared to lead “The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition.”
1887: Birthdate of Wolfgang Kohler. “Kohler was the only non-Jewish psychologist who ever protested against
Germany
and the Nazis. He was not afraid to make his thoughts about them very public which could have cost him his life at a very early age. He was lucky that he was not thrown into a prison and killed off for the things he said about
Germany
and the Nazis”
1890(29th of Tevet, 5650): Rabbi Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler put on his tallit and t’fillin, aided by Joseph Vangelder, his faithful servant for twenty years. He said the Sh’ma with a clear and unhesitating voice and at 8.45 am breathed his last. Born in 1803, he was the Orthodox Chief Rabbi of the British Empire from 1845 until his death and one of the most prominent 19th century rabbi in the English-speaking world. (As reported by Rabbi Raymond Apple)
1891: It was reported that “there are not many Jews in the prisons or reformatories” of New York City. But based on the request from a board of local rabbis, a “salaried officer” will be hired to provide for the “spiritual care” the Jews that have been incarcerated.
1891: It was reported that “Abraham Tabber, Treasurer of a Hebrew Lodge and Cemetery Association in Elizabeth, NJ” has disappeared along with the funds in his care.
1891: It was reported today that Sarah Bernhardt and her company will be sailing from the French port of Havre for an upcoming performance in New York City.
1891: Louis May chaired a special meeting of the Board of Trustees of Temple Emanu-El where the death of Lazarus Rosenfeld, its vice president was announced. Rabbi Gustav Gottheil “was appointed as a special committee of one to draft suitable resolutions expressing the sentiment and sympathy of the board” which will “be published in the American Hebrew, the Jewish Messenger, The New York Times and The New York Herald.
1892: A large number of paintings by Thomas Hicks whose works include copies of two portraits of Jews by Rembrandt hanging in the National Gallery of London are scheduled to be auctioned off this evening at the American Art Galleries on Madison Square. (There were those who mistakenly thought that the great Dutch painter was Jewish)
1892: As the battle over immigration in the United States intensifies, certain unidentified labor leaders said today “that protests of workingman were directed not against the Jews, in particular, but against further immigration” by an group such as the Chinese “as being hurtful to the welfare of the working classes.”
1893: “German-American Reformers” which was published today described the activities of the German American Association, an organization that worked to re-elect President Grover Cleveland which included efforts to attract the support of Russian and Polish Jews. Translations of letters by Carl Schurz and Grover Cleveland that had been addressed to Jews were printed in Hebrew in a quantity of one hundred thousand. Additionally, the association sent Jewish, Russian and German speakers to New York’s east side to address the immigrant voters.
1894: Based on information that first appeared in The Westminster Gazette, it was reported today that Sydney Grundy’s new play, “The Old Jew” which opened at the Garrick Theatre in London “seems to be a failure and is “one of the author’s worst plays.
1894: “A Great Education Work” published today described the twice a week evening lecture series inaugurated by the Board of Education in 1889 as an invaluable resource for elevating the known of the working class, especially among recently arrived immigrant’s. When attendance began to fall, the program was placed under the control of Dr. Henry M. Leipziger , the “well known…lecturer, educator and Director of the Hebrew Technical Institute.” “Since then, under his able supervision, the courses of lectures have prospered marvelously in popularity.”
1894: It was reported today that Sarah Bernhardt will perform in New York for six weeks following a six week stint by Eleonora Duse.
1894: It was reported today that the Rothschilds are forming schools to provide primary technical education for Jews immigrating to Palestine.
1895: Solon P. Rothschild represented Annie Winterman on charges she that she had defrauded two men who patrons of her matrimonial bureau.
1896: Oscar S. Straus, the former United States Ambassador to Turkey, delivered a lecture on “Religious Liberty” at a meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1897: It was reported that Mr. and Mrs. Moses May led the grand march that opened the 14th annual ball sponsored by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society. May, the society’s President, was fiiling in for May Wurster who had been originally expected to fill this role.
1898: Abraham Schlesinger is scheduled to be buried today at Cypress Hills following a funeral at his residence on East 53rd Street.
1896: It was reported today that Russian-American Hebrew Association adopted a resolution expressing support for the “patriots of Cuba” struggling to free themselves from “degrading…corrupt rule of the Spanish Government” while expressing “the opinion…that the United States…should not deviate from its policy of strict neutrality…but should take immediate steps to recognize the Cubans as a belligerent power.” (The Russian American Jews emotionally identified with the Cubans as another oppressed people but were savvy enough to know the dangers of expressing belligerency. All of this would be resolved two years later with the Spanish American War.)
1898: As ant-Semitic mobs continue to move through the streets of Paris, 500 angry students demonstrated in front of Emile Zola’s house.
1898: In Algiers, the troops have cleared the streets of anti-Jewish rioters and made 300 arrests in an attempt to restore law and order.
1899: Reports are published that Leopold de Rothschild was hurt when a branch hit his face, breaking his nose and injuring an eye, while the newly elected Member of Parliament was taking part in a hunt.
1899: Opel manufactured its first automobile. In 1931, General Motors acquired 100% ownership of the German automobile company. In 1998 General Motors hired historian Henry Ashby Turner, Jr. to investigate the wartime activities of Opel, its German subsidiary, which a group of Holocaust survivors was suing. His research led to the book General Motors and the Nazis: The Struggle for Control of Opel,
Europe
’s Biggest Carmaker published in 2005. Mr. Turner concluded that although Opel had made the morally dubious decision to produce engines for the Luftwaffe in 1938, by the time the war began General Motors had lost control of the company and therefore had no say in its production of military vehicles or its use of slave labor.
1901: :Legendary American humorist Mark Twain addressed members of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls at their Annual Meeting on the issue of female suffrage. Speaking to a packed audience at Temple Emanu-El, Hebrew Tech’s then-President Nathaniel Myers introduced Twain, starting the ceremony off with an update about the school’s ongoing expansion efforts and an explanation of its unique purpose as the single society in New York City offering a vocational education to Jewish girls. Explaining women’s role in society as vulnerable in comparison to men’s, President Myers declared the work of the school to be vital in a world where girls were too often forgotten. When Twain took center stage, he said that he had been an advocate of women’s rights for many years and that he saw in this school "a hope for the realization of a project [he had] always dreamed of.” Women, he felt, were equally competent to vote. He went on to say that women had been making great progress in their crusade against discriminatory laws, but that what was needed next was for women to be the makers and enforcers of laws. As he saw it, men’s corruption in party politics was a disgrace to democracy, but he said he believed that if women were given the ballot, they would use their strength to vote down unworthy candidates and restore the morals on which states are built. Optimistic about the movement’s progress, Twain insisted that if he lived long enough that he would surely see women receive their voting rights and use them to enact positive change.” (As reported by the Jewish Foundation for Education of Women)
1903: Harry Houdini escaped from the police station Halvemaansteeg in Amsterdam.
1903: Herzl traveled to Paris.
1910: The Angel Island Immigration Station opened today. Prior to the opening of the Immigration Station, immigrants landed directly in San Francisco. Jews immigrated through Angel Island primarily in two waves: in the 1920s from Russia to escape the Bolshevik revolution, and between 1938 and 1940, when German and Austrian Jews crossed Asia to flee the Nazis. In some ways, Angel Island was the Ellis Island of the West. But because of the politics and laws of its time, unlike Ellis Island, many immigrants were detained on Angel Island for weeks or months at a time, particularly Chinese and other Asian immigrants. According to Judy Yung, a retired professor at U.C. Santa Cruz and co-author of a new book about Angel Island’s history, Jewish immigrants had it better. The average stay for Russians and Jews on Angel Island was two to three days, and less than 2 percent were deported. “Overall, the Russian and Jewish experiences on Angel Island were very similar if not better than those of their counterparts on Ellis Island, where their rejection rate was almost twice as high,” she writes. “For the overwhelming majority who were coming to escape religious or political persecution, Angel Island was truly a gateway to the promised land of freedom and opportunity.” However, it wasn’t an easy gateway to pass through. Many immigrants — including Jews — were detained. In some instances, representatives from Jewish and Hebrew benevolent societies felt compelled to come to Angel Island to testify on behalf of Jewish detainees. In 1915, for example, one such representative spoke to immigration officials, telling them that “we always take steps to see that Jewish boys obtain work and do not become beggars.” After this, officials released eight Jewish detainees, according to Yung’s book. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society also stepped in to help, opening a Pacific Coast branch in San Francisco in May 1915 mainly to advocate for the increased number of Jews coming through Angel Island. In 1916, for example, when 17 Jews refused to eat the food served to them in the Angel Island dining hall during Passover, HIAS provided the immigrants with matzah and kosher-for-Passover food they could eat in their rooms. And in 1933, when a 54-year-old widower traveling with his two sons was detained on the island because officials thought he was “emaciated and frail looking,” HIAS offered a hand. HIAS helped round up $1,000 from other family members, and the father, who spent two months on Angel Island, was finally released. In another instance, a shoe-store owner from Vienna and his wife were held overnight because they were suspected of being an LPC, a “likely public charge,” meaning they would need government support to get by. They had come from Shanghai with just $22 to their name. But because they had the foresight to leave Germany with two fur coats worth over $2,000 — the Nazis allowed them to take goods but not money — they were able to convince the officials of their financial stability. “I was really struck by the resourcefulness of the Jewish immigrants,” Yung said during a phone interview.
1912: Birthdate of Konrad Bloch. The noted biochemist earned a Nobel Prize in 1964 for his studies of cholesterol
1913: At the request of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 156 women from 52 congregations around the country met in
Cincinnati
,
Ohio
, to create the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods (NFTS).
1914(23rd of Tevet, 5674): Adolph Krakauer, a pioneer Texas merchant died of a heart attack today in El Paso. Born in Fürth, Bavaria, in 1846, this son of Joel and Babette (Elsasser) Krakauer was educated in the Latin schools and graduated from the Royal Commercial College of Fürth in 1862. He immigrated to New York in 1865 and was employed as a clerk there. In 1869 he moved to San Antonio, Texas, where he went to work for Louis Zork, a leading merchant. He married Zork's daughter Ada and became a member of the firm. Though he was presumably well established, he chose to move to El Paso in 1875, at a time when the town's population was listed as seventy-five Mexicans and twenty-five Anglos. There he clerked in the firm of Sam Schutz and Son and became manager when the business was sold; later he became a partner. In 1885 he sold his interest in the firm and organized the firm of Krakauer, Zork, and Moye with his brother-in-law, Gustave Zork. The company became a leading wholesale hardware dealer in the Southwest, with a branch in Chihuahua, Mexico. Krakauer also became president of Two Republic Life Insurance Company, the Krakauer-Zork Investment Company, and the Mountainside Realty Company and director of the First National Bank and the Rio Grande Valley Banking and Trust Company. He also owned extensive real estate in El Paso. He served as county commissioner and alderman and was elected mayor as a Republican after a bitter election campaign in 1889. He never assumed the office, for it was discovered he had not taken out his final citizenship papers. Krakauer was a leader in Jewish community activities and served as president of Temple Mount Sinai. He spoke fluent Spanish.
1918(8th of Shevat, 5678): Sixty-four year old Emil Jellinke, the highly successful Austrian businessman who put the “Mercedes” in Mercedes Benz, passed away today.
1918: Following the lead of Reform Jewish sisterhoods, and at the behest of Solomon Schechter, Conservative synagogue sisterhoods joined together to form the National Women's League of the United Synagogue. The founding president of the League was Schechter's wife, Mathilde Roth Schechter.
1919: Submission of the Tentative Report of the Intelligence Section of the American Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference
1920: Having escaped from the clutches of the “Whites” in Odessa Sholom Schwartzbard arrived back in Paris today.
1921: King Constantine donates 10,000 Drachmae for the relief of Jewish sufferers of the fire in Salonica.
1921: Birthdate of Barney Clark. Clark was the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart, an operation that was performed at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Ky.
1923: Birthdate of Annemarie Dinah Gottliebova, the native of Brno, Czechoslovakia, who was shipped to Auschwitz with her mother where she bartered her services as a portrait painter for her life and her mother’s life. After the war, as Dina Babbit, she spent the past several decades trying to retrieve her paintings from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and State Museum (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Q-7_jLMs4
1924: Birthdate of comedian Benny Hill. “Roses are reddish, Violets are bluish If it weren't for Christmas, We’d all be Jewish.”
1924: Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov Lenin Russian leader died of a stroke at the age of 54. Lenin’s death brought a power struggle between Stalin and Trotsky to a boil. Stalin would triumph and anti-Semitism would become as much of a staple for the Commissars as it had been for the Czars.
1927: Two funeral services were held today for famed philanthropist Lee Kohns. Bishop Thomas F. Failer of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Tennessee conducted the first service at the family’s Manhattan home. Dr. Samuel Schulman of Temple Beth-El presided over the grave side service in Beth-El Cemetery at Cypress Hills.
1927: Bernard Baruch is among the members of a delegation representing the Board of Directors of City College’s Alumni Association that is attending today’s funeral of Lee Kohns who graduated in 1884.
1927: At 10:30 this morning, classes were halted for five minutes at City College in memory of Lee Kohns.
1927: The will of Lee Kohns was filed for probate this afternoon after having been read at his funeral. The estate is worth about $3,000,000. While the will the leaves generous bequests to charity, the bulk of the estate will go to his wife and their children.
1928: While serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill receives a request from Chaim Weizmann for a loan intended to assist the Jewish population in
Palestine
in a manner consistent the aims of the Mandate. The loan would gain the support of Lord Balfour but would be rejected by the Cabinet in a move that had a whiff of anti-Semitism.
1931 (3rd of Shevat, 5691): Composer and pianist Felix Blumenfeld passed away at the age of 67 in the
Soviet Union
. Born in 1863 Blumenfeld taught Vladimir Horowitz. Blumenfeld’s work was
primarily a product of pre-revolutionary
Russia
.
1931: Isaacs Isaacs, the first Jew to serve as Chief Justice of Australia completed his term of office. He was the third person to fill this position.
1933: Birthdate Itzhak Fuks, the Israeli El Al captain who would die when his plane crashed in Amsterdam 1992.
1934: The New York Times correspondent in Jerusalem suggests that “the division of Palestine into Jewish and Arab canton with each of these peoples living as a separate entity” would be “a solution to the Arab Jewish problem.” Based on reports from other sources, the Arab canton would include Jerusalem, Haifa and Jaffa while the Jewish canton would be limited to Tel Aviv, which virtually an all-Jewish city any way, and a narrow strip of land stretching from Betsian to Tiberias to the swamps around Lake Huleh.
1938: The Romanian government strips Romanian Jews of their citizenship.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that an Arab from
Hebron
, sentenced to death by the
Military Court
, confessed that he participated, 11 days earlier, in the murder of John Starkey, one of the most distinguished archaeologists working in
Palestine
.
1941: Birthdate of Plácido Domingo the Spanish tenor “who spent three years” in Tel Aviv “in the early 1960’s…where “he learned the basic tenor repertoire before embarking on an international career.
1941: After observing a three-day anti-Semitic rampage in Bucharest by the SS-supported Iron guard in Romania, the Romanian Jewish writer Mihael Sebastian wrote, “The stunning thing about the Bucharest bloodbath is the quite bestial ferocity to its…the butchered Jews were hanged by the neck on hooks normally used for beef carcasses. A sheet of paper was stuck to each corpse with the notation “Kosher Meat.”
1941: In
Rumania
, the Iron Guard raided thousands of Jews, destroyed hundreds of shops, and looted or burned twenty five synagogues. In addition, 120 Jews were cruelly tortured and killed.
1941:
Bulgaria
enacted its first anti-Jewish measures.
1942: In the Vilna Ghetto, the Jews established the United Partisan Organization (Fareynigte Partizaner Organizatsye, FPO), the only organization in the ghettos that included all the Zionist youth movements.
1943: In
Warsaw
, the Germans opened fire in the ghetto. Resistance was given by Jews seizing weapons and firing from rooftops with only 10 pistols. The Germans retreated after twelve were killed.
1943: Over the next four days, two thousand Jews from
Theresienstadt,
Czechoslovakia
, are deported to
Auschwitz
. Some 1760 are gassed on arrival, including patients from the Jewish mental hospital at
Apeldoorn
,
Holland
, as well as about 50 of the hospital's nurses who accompany the patients to lessen their terror.
1944: Birthdate of Professor Stefan Reif the distinguished academic from Edinburg who was the founding director of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit
1945: Ninety-six Hungarian Jews interned at
Auschwitz
and working at a quarry at
Golleschau
,
Germany
, are sealed inside a pair of cattle cars labeled "Property of the SS." Half of the prisoners freeze to death as the train travels aimlessly for days. At
Zwittau
,
Germany
, the cattle cars are detached from the train and left at the station. Manufacturer Oskar Schindler alters the bill of lading to read "Final Destination--Schindler Factory, Brünnlitz." After unsealing the cars at his factory, Schindler frees the Jews;
1945: Birthdate of Andrew Stein, President of the
New York
City Council.
1948: Golda Meir's speech to the General Assembly of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds helped raise $50 million for the Haganah at a critical moment in
Israel
's fight for independence.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported on the worsening security situation along the country's borders, especially the Jordanian-Israeli no-man's-land dividing
Jerusalem
. This security deterioration, infiltration and frequent robberies may have been directly influenced by an intensified anti-Israeli activity of the Arab states at the UN General Assembly.
Jordan
prevented any cement or building materials from being transported to the Israeli enclave on
Mount
Scopus
, urgently needed there to repair damaged buildings, claiming that
Israel
wished to fortify the enclave. The 9,000-ton British cruiser, HMS Kenya, steamed into
Haifa
Port
for a three-day unofficial visit.
1954: Letters of administration were granted to Richard Samuel because his father Bernard Samuel, the former mayor of Philadelphia, passed away without leaving a will. The estate of the man who served as mayor from 1941 until 1952 is worth approximately $50,000.
1954: The U.S.S. Nautilus,
America
’s first nuclear powered submarine is launched at
Groton
,
Conn.
Admiral Hyman Rickover is considered to be the godfather of the nuclear Navy.
1954: During a cabinet debate over
Egypt
’s decision to bar ships going to
Israel
from using the
Suez Canal
, Foreign Minister Anthony Eden is able to make a case for the Arab state’s behavior.
1959 (12th of Shevat, 5719): Film pioneer Cecil B. DeMille passed away, His father was an Episcopalian. His mother, Matilda Beatrice Samuel, was the daughter of parents of “German Jewish heritage.” For most Jews he is the man who gave the world Moses in the guise of Charlton Heston.
away
1964(7th of Shevat, 5724): Austrian born American actor Joseph Schildkraut passes away at the age of 68. He won an Oscar in 1937 as Best Supporting Actor. Younger audiences may remember him as the father in “Diary of Anne Frank.”
1968: Simon & Garfunkel released the Original Soundtrack to “The Graduate,” which quickly went to #1 on the pop charts and which will bring Paul Simon a Grammy for Best Original Score.
1971(24th of Tevet, 5731): Polish born Jewish author Yuli Borisovich Margolin passed away at the age of 70. http://www.forward.com/articles/134265/
1971: Twenty one year old Annie Leibovitz’s photograph of John Lennon appeared on today’s issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;