January 24 In History
41: Roman Emperor Caligula is murdered by the Praetorian Guard. Caligula’s treatment of the Jews does not qualify him as an anti-Semite since he was “a certifiable nut case” who murdered several of his family members, reportedly had incestuous relationships with at least of on his sisters and planned to name his favorite horse as a Counsel of Rome. Caligula believed he was a divinity who was to be publicly worshipped. A delegation of Jews from
Alexandria
, including the famous Philo, went to
Rome
to plead the Jewish case before Caligula. At first Caligula was hostile to the Jews, but in the end he reportedly dismissed the delegation saying, the Jews are “just a poor, stupid people unable to believe in my divinity.” The real threat came when Caligula took steps to install a statute of himself in
Jerusalem
that was to be worshipped. Agrippa, King of Judea and Petronious Publius, the Roman governor of
Syria
were able to stall the Emperor whose subsequent assassination rendered the point moot.
76: Birthdate of Publius A Hadrianus 14th Roman Emperor. Hadrian reigned from 117 through 138. Hadrian banned Torah study, Synagogue worships and led the Romans in the defeat of the Bar Kochba Revolt.
1436: In
Aix-en-Provence
, a riot ensued after a crowd felt that a Jew who insulted the Virgin Mary received too light a sentence
1656: Dr. Jacob Lumbrozo, the first Jewish physician in what would be the
United States
arrived in
Maryland
1712: Birthdate of Frederick II,
King of Prussia
from 1740 until 86. Known as
Frederick
the Great, the Prussian king’s treatment of Jews was, to say the least, uneven. He did grant special rights to some, including Mendelssohn. However for the most part, he treated them as an exploitable economic commodity. But what can you expect from a man who wished to be buried with his greyhounds, the only living creatures he really loved.
1803(1st of Shevat, 5563): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1828: Birthdate of Ferdinand J Cohn, German botanist. He is considered a founder of the science of bacteriology. From his early studies of microscopic life he developed theories of the bacterial causes of infectious disease and recognized bacteria as plants. He aided Robert Koch in preparing Koch's famous work on anthrax. Cohn's writings cover such diverse subjects as fungi, algae, insect epidemics, and plant diseases.
1844: The Second Annual Benevolent Ball of the Israelites of Philadelphia raised $489.79 today.
1848: James Marshall finds gold at mill that is being built for John Sutter near San Francisco, CA. According to historian Hubert Howe Bancroft this event brought “a medley of races and nationalities, including the ubiquitous Hebrews." According to Stephen Mark Dobbs there were thirty Jews at a Rosh Hashanah services in San Francisco and the number grew to fifty for Yom Kippur. Jews mined for gold but they mined the commercial opportunities and by 1853 their number had grown to 3,000 in San Francisco alone.
1851: In Cayuga County, NY, Albert Baham was hung for his role in the murder of the Jewish peddler Nathan Adler. After the execution, Albert’s brother John confessed his role which resulted in his death sentence being commuted to life in prison. In point of fact, he was pardoned by the governor after having served 8 years in prison for his part in the crime.
1856 (17th of Shevat, 5616): Rabbi Yechezkel of Kuzmir, Polish Hasidic leader passed away. (Ed. Note: This comparatively lengthy note is intended to provide those with limited background an introduction to the richly textured, multi-dimensional world of Chassidic Jewry.) Born in 1755, he was the founder of the) Modzitz or Modzhitz Chassidim. This is the name of a Chassidic group that derives its name from Modzice, one of the boroughs of the town of
Dęblin
,
Poland
, located on the
Vistula
River
. Followers of this group are known as Modzitzer Chasidim and they are now based mainly in Bnei Brak and
Jerusalem
in
Israel
where their Rebbe lives. They also have a smaller following in
Brooklyn
,
New York
. The rabbis who lead them have come from a family by the name of "Taub". Rabbi Yechezkel Taub of Kuzmir established yeshivas and a type of Hasidic teaching that was similar to that of the Seer of Lublin, and distinct from the Hasidism of Ger and Kotzk. Upon his death, his son, Rabbi Eliyahu Taub of
Zvolin
,
Poland
succeeded him. He excelled in Torah scholarship and creating Hasidic songs. He was called Menagen mafli pla'os Hebrew for "a wondrous musical talent". His first son Rabbi Moshe Aaron succeeded him as Rabbi of Zvolin. His second son Yisrael went on to found the actual Modzitz Hasidic dynasty. Rabbi Yisrael Taub was born in 1849 and in 1891 founded the Modzitzer Hasidic movement in
Modzitz
,
Poland
. He created many melodies that are still sung by Hasidim today. When he passed away on
November 24, 1920
, he was succeeded by his son Rabbi Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub. Shaul Yedidya Elazar Taub was born on
October 20, 1886
. He guided his Hasidim until 1938 when he fled
Poland
due to Nazi persecution. He made his way to
Lithuania
, then to
Russia
, then to
China
, and then to
Japan
. Eventually, with the help of some Modzitzer Chassidim, he and some family members reached the shores of
San Francisco
and then moved to
Brooklyn
,
New York
in 1940. It was during his stay in
Brooklyn
that Rabbi Shaul became popular and helped rebuild Modzitz. He was a gifted songwriter and wrote over 1000 Hasidic melodies. He constantly talked about the coming of the State of Israel. He was unable to see his prediction come true and he passed away on
November 29, 1947
, the day the UN voted to create the state of
Israel
. He was succeded by his son Rabbi Samuel Eliyahu Taub. Rabbi Samuel Eliyahu was born in
Lublin
,
Poland
on
February 9, 1905
. Rabbi Shaul and his son Rabbi Samuel were on a trip to the then British Mandate of
Palestine
in 1935. While they were there Samuel fell in love with
Palestine
and asked his father if he could stay there. His father agreed and within a year Rabbi Samuel's wife and their child came over to
Israel
. In 1947 he succeeded his father and became the Modzitzer Rebbe to be known as the Imre Aish ("Words of Fire") as Samuel Eliyahu is called, and continued the traditions of Modzitz both as a composer and Torah scholar. He passed away on
May 6, 1984
, when he was succeeded by his son Rabbi Dan Israel Taub. Rabbi Israel Dan was born in 1928 in
Warsaw
,
Poland
. He came with his mother to
Palestine
in 1936 to meet up with his father Rabbi Samuel. For a number of years he headed the Modzitz Chasidim in the city of
Tel-Aviv
where his father had lived. He moved to a new building in
Bnei Brak
,
Israel
on Lag Ba'omer 5755 (May 18. 1995). Like his predecessors he also composes Hasidic melodies and many of them have are sung regularly in Hasidic synagogues. His opinion is highly regarded. The Modzitz Hasidim are well-known for their uniquely inspiring melodies and their devotion to serious learning of Torah and Talmud.
1862: Bucharest was proclaimed capital of Romania. The Jewish population of Bucharest had grown from 127 families in 1820 to 5,934 persons in 1860. By the turn of the century, the Jewish population would exceed 40,000 people making them almost 15% of the city’s total population.
1874: Nathan W. Lyman appeared at the Jefferson Market Police Court today and withdrew his complaint that he had been swindled out of $7,000 by a Hungarian born Jew, Dr. Gabor Naphegyi.
1876: Leaders of several New York congregations met at Temple Emanu-El met tonight to discuss the possibility of establishing a college for Jewish students. A committee was established to contact congregations throughout the United States to gain support for the endeavor. Louis May, President of Temple Emanu-El was selected as chairman and Meyer S. Isaacs was selected as Secretary.
1879: Rosa Sonneschein founded "The Pioneers," a Jewish women's literary club in
St. Louis
,
Missouri
. “The club, which met in Sonneschein's home, was modeled after similar Christian women's clubs and was devoted to general literary subjects rather than specifically Jewish literature. Perhaps inspired by this literary circle, in the 1880s Sonneschein began publishing stories in Jewish magazines. She also worked as a correspondent for the German-language press in the U.S., a position for which she was prepared by both her German upbringing and her social status as the wife of a prominent St. Louis rabbi. In 1895, after divorcing her husband, Sonneschein moved to
Chicago
and founded a magazine specifically addressed to American Jewish women, the American Jewess. Though the magazine ran only until 1899, it was the first English periodical specifically addressed to Jewish women. It sought to document and inspire the activism of an emerging network of Jewish women's organizations that expanded upon the model established by the Pioneers.”
1880: Birthdate of
New York
political leader and Congressman Meyer Jacobstein.
1888: Birthdate of Austrian writer, Hedwig (Vicki) Baum. Vicki Baum is considered one of the first modern bestselling authors, and her books are reputed to be among the first examples of contemporary mainstream literature. She attended Vienna Conservatory to study the harp, later playing the harp professionally and teaching music for several years in
Darmstadt
. After a number of novels in German, a breakthrough novel, Menschen im Hotel, was turned into a play and then at the instigation of producer Irving Thalberg into the highly successful film Grand Hotel directed by Edmund Goulding. The story details one weekend in a posh hotel in minute detail -- Baum had taken a job as maid to yield realism. The film won Best Picture Oscar. Her time in the
United States
made her realize it was time to leave
Germany
, emigrating in 1932. From that point Baum wrote many of her novels in English and took citizenship in 1938. Residing in
California
, she lived in Pacific Palisades,
Pasadena
, and then
Hollywood
, where she died of leukemia in 1960. Among two of her most pithy sayings are, "Pity is the deadliest feeling that can be offered to a woman" and "To be a Jew is a destiny.”
1888: In New York City, over a thousand people attended a benefit performance of "King Solomon" at the Roumania Opera House. The event was organized by Mrs. M. Rosendorff who will use the funds to buy meat for needy Jews at Passover time. This is not Mrs. Rosendorff's first foray into fund raising. In 1887, she hosted a ball at the the Webster Hall that paid for meat Passover time.
1891(15thof Shevat, 5651): Tu B’Shevat
1892: It was reported today that as the famine worsens in Russia Czar Nicholas II has decided to devote all of his energies to dealing with the crisis which means he has “indefinitely postponed” all of the measures aimed against his Jewish subjects.
1892: It was reported today that the upcoming Hebrew Charity Ball is the last major festivity of the social season in Philadelphia, PA.
1892: It was reported today that in addition to persecuting the Jews, the Czar is now persecuting the Stundists, a Christian sect founded in the 1850’s.
http://eprints.ucl.ac.uk/16346/1/16346.pdf
1895: It was reported today that the dances sponsored by the Young Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s League of the Montefiore home have replaced the annual Purim Ball as the leading social event “in Jewish social circles.” The change took place two years ago but has not had any effect on the ability to raise funds for the charities that benefit from these social events.
1896: It was reported that while giving President Kreuger was giving a sermon during the ceremonies dedicating a synagogue in Johannesburg, he said “And so I consecrate this building to the worship of the Triune God.” While some Jews minimized this reference to the Trinity, “others maintain that the building has been descreated and they have built another synagogue…”
1896: It was reported today that in Jersey City, forty or fifty Jews who were sitting in the audience during a speech being given by Herman Ahlwardt, the German anti-Semite “threatened to kill him and burn the hall” when he “made some particularly bitter references to them.” The Jews “were ejected by the police and order was restored.”
1897: Berlin Zionists Willy Bambus and Theodor Zlocisti address a letter to Herzl.
1897: Dr. Lyman Abbott delivered a sermon today on the books of Esther, Daniel and Jonah “all of which he said were fictitious although the book of Esther was based on historical facts and was derived from court records.”
1898: It was reported today that for the year ending November 30, 1897, Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York had treated 2,996 patients with a mortality rate of 9.04 percent.
1898: It was reported today that leaders of the Jewish community in Algiers have advised their co-religionists to remain indoors and stay away from their businesses following attacks by anti-Dreyfus/ant-Semitic mobs.
1898: A mob of approximately 3,000 people surged through the streets of Algiers shouting “Down With the Jews.”
1898: An anti-Jewish riot took place today in St. Malo, a town in Brittany.
1899: “The Zionist Movement” published today provided a summary of the report prepared by the U.S. Consul at Beirut that concluded by “saying that the prospects are brighter than ever before for the Jews in Palestine and for the country itself.”
1899: It was reported today that Henry Herzberg believes “that there never was a period in the world’s history when more potent reasons existed why the essential teachings of Judaism should be faithfully observed. Amid the forces of modern civilization…there is vital need for constructive thought which feeds the moral springs of action.”
1899: It was reported today that the population of Palestine is 200,000 of which 40,000 are Jews. This is an increase of 26,000 Jews in the last twenty years. There are 22,000 Jews living in Jerusalem “half of whom” have come from Europe.
1901: The Industrial Removal Office was formally created as part of the Jewish Agricultural Society at the Society's Executive Committee meeting. The Society rented a store at
34 Stanton Street
in
New York
and named it "The Industrial Removal Office." The philosophy behind the IRO was to assimilate the immigrants into American Society, both economically and culturally. In 1901, following anti-Semitic decrees by the Romanian government, a large wave of Romanian Jews fled to
New York
. The Rumanian Committee was quickly formed in
New York
to distribute the immigrants to other towns where they might find employment. B'nai B'rith lodges in these towns and cities assisted the refugees upon their arrival. The Romanian Committee rapidly evolved into the Industrial Removal Office, which took over the work on a much larger scale and opened its availability to any unemployed Jewish immigrant, regardless of their origin. The process of procuring work for immigrants was done through traveling agents, who also obtained the cooperation of local Jewish organizations. Local committees, organized primarily by B'nai B'rith, obtained orders for workers and assisted the immigrants on their arrival. The
New York
bureau noted requests received from the traveling agents and local committees and matched up opportunities from their applicant lists. In the first year of the Industrial Removal Office's existence, nearly 2000 individuals were sent to 250 places throughout the
United States
.
1902: Birthdate of economist Oskar Morgenstern. Morgenstern enjoyed a successful career in
Europe
until the coming of the Nazis forced him to flee to the
United States
, where he pursued his career.
1903: The New York Times reports on the growth and development of the Jewish Theological Seminary including the securing of a $500,000 endowment and the election of Justice Greenbaum, the
New York
state jurist, to the Board of Directors.
1905: Henry S. Morais, journalist, educator and rabbi, writes a letter praising Benjamin Disraeli to the New York Timesentitled “Why the People of the United States Should Cherish His Memory” in which he reviews Disraeli’s support for the Union during the Civil War when other English leaders including Gladstone “were known to be in sympathy” with the Confederates and which concludes with the statement that this “scion of the famous Israelis of Jewish history…the offspring of a people as old as the ages, will live in the minds and in the hearts not alone of his own, but in those of a liberty loving humanity.”
1908(21stof Shevat, 5668): Leopold Wallach a distinguished New York lawyer who is the father-in-law of Max Morgenthau, Jr. passed away today.
1911: Founding of Merchaviya the first Jewish settlement in Emek Yizra'el (
Jezreel
Valley
). Ten years after its founding, Merchaviya would be joined by its most famous member, Golda Meir. The future Prime Minister of Israel would tend chickens
1913: Birthdate of Mark Goodson, TV game-show producer
1913: Franz Kafka stopped working on "Amerika"; it will never be finished
1917(1st of Sh'vat, 5677): Rosh Chodesh Sh'vat
1918: The Gregorian calendar introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective from February 14(NS). This change is one of the impediments to pinpoint accuracy in dating events in Russian history. Events are marked in different places by Old Style and New Style dates. Unfortunately, some sources do not tell which they are which leads to added confusion. (Yes, this is an excuse for some of the inaccuracies in this document.)
1920 (29th of Tevet, 5680): Amedeo Clemente Modigliani passed away at the age of 35. http://www.isabel.com/gallery/reproduction/m/modiglia/record.html
.
1922: Eskimo Pie patented by Christian K Nelson of
Iowa
. (Nelson was not an Eskimo and he was not Jewish. But those of who live in
Iowa
don’t get to brag very often, so just laugh and move on. There is a Jewish connection between Iowa and Ice Cream. Many of the products manufactured by Blue Bunny Ice Cream which is located in La Mars, Iowa, are kosher and delicious)
1922: Professor Louis Ginzberg presented a paper on “The Question of Fermented Wines in Jewish Religious Observances” to members of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary who meeting in an executive session today. Following a lengthy and lively discussion the consensus of opinion was that unfermented grape juice may be used for sacramental purposes. This decision will be forwarded to the American Jewish Committee which is collecting information on the acceptability of using grape juice instead of wine when reciting Kiddush, etc. Ginzberg’s belief that the use of unfermented grape juice could be used put him at odds with the writings of Rabi Abraham Klausner. Currently, nobody produces grape juice that meets the standards of Kashrut so adoption of Ginzberg’s view would require the start of a new business venture. [For those of you unacquainted with American History, this issue arose with the start of Prohibition and its attempt to ban the sale and consumption of alcohol in the U.S.]
1924: Birthdate of Chaim David ha-Levi, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv.
1924: Birthdate of character actor Marvin Kaplan.
1932(16thof Shevat, 5692): Sixty-four year old Paul M. Warburg, the brother of Felix Warburg, passed away at 6:30 this evening at his home in Manhattan. At the time of his death he was chairman of the boards of the International Acceptance Bank of New York and the Manhattan Company. A native of Hamburg, and a member of one of the most prominent banking family, he was instrumental in providing many of the ideas that culminated in the creation of the Federal Reserve. He was married to Nina Loeb, the daughter of the late Solomon Loeb of the famed financial firm Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
1932: Celebration of the 70th anniversary of the birth of author Sigmund Dische in Czernowitz, Romania.
1932: The New York Times describes Dr. Abraham Schwardon’s gift to
Hebrew
University
as being “A Great Collection of Autographs and Portraits Assembled by the Labors of a Galician Chemist.”
1933(26th of Tevet, 5693): Charles "King" Solomon a Boston racketeer born in 1884 who controlled New England's bootlegging, narcotics and illegal gambling during Prohibition was killed in Boston's Cotton Club by rival gunmen. http://www.onewal.com/w-solomo.html
1934: A Lutheran minister (name unknown) opposed to the
Reich
Church
is beaten by Nazi thugs.
1935: Birthdate of Nisim Cohen, the Haifa native who was a crewman on the ill-fated INS Dakar.
1936: Jewish band leader Benny Goodman and his orchestra record "Stompin' at the Savoy" on Victor Records
1938: The Palestine Post reported that a meeting of the General Council (Va'ad Leumi) of Palestine Jews published a manifesto calling for the immediate opening of the gates of the country to the millions of suffering Diaspora Jews.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that one Jew was severely wounded when Arabs shot at a group of workers returning from the Givat Shaul quarry to Jerusalem.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that according to the new Romanian law, all Jews had to appear before the courts in order to prove their citizenship rights.
1939: Hermann Goring, Hitler’s #2, formally appointed Reinhard Heydrich as head of Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration and ordered him to speed up the process
1940: Final day of an Aktion begun on January 18 during which 255 Jews were arrested in Warsaw and then murdered in the Palmiry Forest.
1940: As the Nazi plunder of
Poland
continues, General Gouvernment ordered registration of all Jewish property.
1941: Birthdate of Dan Schecthman, the Tel Aviv native who is a professor at the Technion and the winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
1943: During the past three weeks, fifteen trains reached the
Auschwitz
from
Belgium
,
Holland
,
Berlin
,
Grodno
and
Bialystok
. Of the new arrivals, 4,000 were sent to the barracks and 20,000 were killed before their luggage could be sorted. To accommodate the rate of killing, four new crematoriums were constructed.
1943 One thousand Jews from Jasionowka were rounded up and deported to Treblinka.
1943: The Nazis incinerated Jewish patients, nurses and doctors at Auschwitz-Birkenau
1943: Hitler ordered Nazi troops at
Stalingrad
to fight to death. This militarily stupid command helped seal the fate of the German army and marked the beginning of the end for the Nazi juggernaut.
1944: The SS Meyer London was launched today. This “liberty ship” was named for the American Jewish leader who was one of only two Socialist Party members to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She was sunk by a torpedo off the cost of Lybia.
1944: Birthdate of singer Neil Diamond
1944: Birthdate of David Gerrold [Jerrold David Friedman] author of the World of Star Trek. There has always been a strange affinity between Jewish writers and science fiction. Maybe it comes from those Biblical chariots of Elijah, Ezekiel and Isaiah.
1947: Birthdate of Warren William Zevon, the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant and a Scottish/Welsh Mormon who became a noted singer, song writer and musician
1948: Julius Ochs Adler was promoted to Major General in the United States Army.
1948: Birthdate Elliott Abrams, Assistant Secretary of State and foreign policy expert.
1949:
France
recognized
Israel
.
1951: Birthdate of Soviet-born American comedian Yakov Smirfnoff
1959(15th of Shevat, 5719): Tu B'Shevat
1959: "Party with Comden &Green" closes at John Golden New York City
1962: Brian Epstein signed a contract to manage The Beatles
1965: In Damascus, Syrian police arrested Kamel Amin Th’abet on charges of being an Israeli spy. After being tortured he was hung in a pubic execution. Th’abet was Eli Cohen who successfully penetrated the highest level of the Syrian government and provided intelligence of immeasurable value.
1965: Winston Churchill died in
London
at age 90. Churchill supported the Balfour Declaration. He led the fight against Hitler. At the same time, he stood by and did virtually nothing to rescue the Jews of Europe. And he continued to enforce the White Paper after there was no military reason to do so. Martin Gilbert, his biographer, is Jewish and has written a slim, fascinating volume entitled Churchill and the Jews.
1974(1st of Shevat, 5734): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1975: Larry Fine, actor, comedian and member of the Three Stooges passed away
1976(22ndof Shevat, 5736): Seventy-one year old Pinchas Lavon passed away
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Lavon.html
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Menachem Begin told the Knesset that he might reconsider his previous decision, and would send a delegation to the Cairo-held military talks, but warned that this would not happen if
Egypt
continued to issue statements offensive to Jewish dignity. Begin explained that
Egypt
broke off the political talks held in
Jerusalem
despite the fact that President Anwar Sadat was well aware, in advance, of
Israel
's stand on the Rafiah Sinai salient and on the future of
Palestine
's Arab people. In Cairo Egypt confirmed that the political peace talks had been frozen, but not terminated. The US insisted that both Egypt and Israel should embark on a useful process that should resume whenever possible.
1983: Director George Cukor passed away at the age of 83 after a stroke and a heart attack.
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/41936%7C58446/George-Cukor/
1986: Birthdate of child actor Ricky Ullman.
1988: After the Israeli Cabinet met today Police Minister Haim Bar-Lev told reporters that reports to contrary, there is no policy to beat Palestinians to stop protests in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He said that the using the word beatings “is an unfortunate term.”
1990: An Israeli court jailed for life plus 40 years a Palestinian known as the ''Tel Aviv Strangler,'' who claimed to have killed seven people to prove he was not a collaborator with the Israelis. Four of his victims were Jews and three were Arabs. Mohammed Halabi, 32 years old, was sentenced today for the murders in October of five women and two men. The Tel Aviv District Court jailed him for 40 additional years for two attempted murders. The police said Mr. Halabi confessed to all the charges.
1991:Israel said it would not carry out an immediate retaliatory strike against Iraq despite the missile attack on Tel Aviv that killed three people. After that decision, another Iraqi missile was destroyed by one of the American Patriot missiles stationed in Israel over the weekend. And it was disclosed that a Patriot had clipped the missile that hit Tel Aviv.
1991:Mayor David N. Dinkins, who has repeatedly criticized the American effort in the Persian Gulf, said today that he would travel to Israel next week in a symbolic gesture of support for Israelis and for American troops. In the tender world of the city's ethnic politics, the visit could prove awkward. It would appeal to Jewish supporters and strengthen his pro-Israel stance, but it might appear too hawkish to some of his anti-war constituents, including many blacks, who still form the base of his support.
1991:In the currency market, the dollar's recovery today, which was partly technical, followed comments by Israel's Ambassador to the United States, who said Tel Aviv would be ready to join in regional arms control efforts and possible peace talks with the Palestinians once the Persian Gulf War ended.
1992: In “A Physical Approach For an Israeli 'Hamlet'” Mel Gussow reviews Rina Yerushalmi's provocative adaptation of "Hamlet" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
1993: A “travel advisory” issued to reported that the American Jewish Congress will be sponsoring 4 “family tours of Israel” this year ‘that include the opportunity to celebrate a bar or bat mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and at the Zealot's Synagogue in Masada”
1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or topics of special interest to Jewish readers including Primo Levi: Tragedy of an Optimistby Myriam Anissimov, The Conversion by Aharon Appelfeld and Reporting Live by Leslie Stahl.
2000:RADWARE Ltd., of Tel Aviv is prepared to make an equity offering 2.5 million shares this week.
2001: As the controversy surrounding the pardon of Marc Rich continues to grow, Jack Quinn, former White House counsel under President Clinton, who is now Mr. Rich's lawyer said in an interview today that the president had given every indication in their conversations on January 19th that he had read the petition and piles of testimonials that had been sent the previous month and that he was eager to discuss the case on its merits. Their conversation was strictly about the “legal merits.” There were no questions about party affiliations or the role of Denis Rich, Mr. Rich's former wife, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser and close friend of the Clintons. But now with the pardon drawing so much criticism, Mr. Quinn acknowledged making mistakes and said that President Clinton had every right to be angry with him. ''He should be upset,'' Mr. Quinn said. ''I'm upset.'' Mr. Quinn faulted himself for failing to go public sooner with the rationale for the pardon. Mr. Clinton has been widely criticized for pardoning Mr. Rich, a financier who lived a wealthy exile life in Switzerland for the last 17 years instead of returning to face charges of tax fraud and trading with Iran in violation of sanctions. ''I didn't anticipate well enough the reaction to this,'' Mr. Quinn said. Beyond his kindling a firestorm of criticism more searing than that surrounding any of Mr. Clinton's other last-minute pardons, Mr. Quinn said he was distressed by the perception that he had used connections gained in the years when he was chief of staff to Al Gore and White House counsel to Mr. Clinton to obliterate much of the case against Mr. Rich.
2001:Today, Presiden Bush appeared to be directing attention away from the Israeli-Palestinian talks and toward major Arab countries by placing telephone calls to four leaders: King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan. The White House spokesman, Ari Fleischer, described the calls as an effort to ''underscore the strong relations the United States has with these nations.'' He said they were ''introductory'' in nature and declined to be specific about substance.
2001:The cabinet decided tonight Israel will return to peace talks with the Palestinians here on Thursday, after a nearly two-day suspension prompted by the killing of two Israeli civilians in the West Bank.
2002:In New York, the 11th annual New York Jewish Film Festival comes to a close.
2004(1stof Shevat, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
2004: An exhibition entitled “What Does It Mean To Be Jewish?” opens at the Jewish Historical Museum in
Amsterdam
.
2005: In an article entitled “A Bright Diaspora Star Fails to Dazzle
Israel
,” Steven Erlanger describes the Israeli reaction to American economist and banker Stanley Fischer becoming Governor of the Bank of Israel.
2006: During the Presidency of Robert A. Iger, The Walt Disney Company announced that it would acquire Pixar for $7.4 billion in an all-stock transaction
2006: The Los Angeles Times published a column by Joel Stein under the headline "Warriors and Wusses" in which he wrote that it is a cop-out to oppose a war and yet claim to support the soldiers fighting it. "I don’t support our troops....When you volunteer for the U.S. military, you pretty much know you’re not going to be fending off invasions from Mexico and Canada. So you’re willingly signing up to be a fighting tool of American imperialism...".
2006:Ehud Olmert, in his first major policy address since becoming Israel's acting prime minister, said at the Herzliya Conference that he backed the creation of a Palestinian state, and that Israel would have to relinquish parts of the West Bank to maintain its Jewish majority.
2006: The Antiquities Authority recommended the Meggido Prison be transferred to a new location, after the remains of an ancient church were discovered on the facility's grounds four months ago.
2007: In what some considered as a major breakthrough in the history of the Holocaust, Haaretz reported that Khaled Abd al-Wahab, a well-to-do Tunisian farmer who died in 1997, was the first Arab to be named as a candidate for a Righteous Gentile award from Yad Vashem. The nomination was based on testimony of Anny Boukris, a 73-year-old Jewish woman from
Los Angeles
who survived the Axis occupation of
North Africa
. In a letter sent to the authorities at Yad Vashaem, she described how Abd al-Wahab rescued her and 24 relatives from their hiding place and hid them on his farm until the end of the German occupation. Boukris, who was 11 at the time, related that al-Wahab risked his life when he stopped a German officer from raping her mother.
2007: At the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA