January 7
1256: Berechiah De Nicole, the Chief Rabbi of Lincoln was released after having been imprisoned in London on charges related to the death of “Little Hugh of Lincoln.” The son of Rabbi Moses ben Yom Tov of London, Reb Berechiah was an English Tosafist who was considered an authority on ritual matters. “He decided that the evening prayer might be said an hour and a quarter before the legal time of night…and declared that nuts prepared by Gentiles might not be eaten by Jews.” In August, 1255, the body of gentile boy named Hugh was found in Lincoln (a town called Nicole in Norman-French). This discovery gave rise to charges of ritual murder for which all the Jews of Lincoln were seized and imprisoned in Lincoln. Berechiah reportedly some time during 1256, but the exact date and cause are unknown.
1325: Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal. During the early 14th century, more than 200,000 Jews lived in Portugal, which was about 20 percent of the total population. This period was part of what is known as “Portugal’s Golden Age of Discovery, in which Jews made a major contribution to Portugal’s success.” During the reign of King Dinis, Alfonso’s father, the clergy invoked the restrictions of the Fourth Lateran Council in an attempt to get the monarch to restrict the role of Jews in Portuguese society. . The clergy, however, invoking the restrictions of the Fourth Council of the Lateran, brought considerable pressure to bear against the Jews during the reign of King Dinis I of Portugal, but the monarch maintained a conciliatory position. Alfonso remained faithful to his father’s policies. The position of the Jews of Portugal did not begin to deteriorate until the last decades of the 14th century as can be seen by the decree of King Joao I forcing Jews to wear special clothing and obey a special curfew.
1502: Birthdate of Pope Gregory VIII, famed for the creation of the Gregorian calendar, a method of tracking time has had a unique impact on Jewish historians trying to match events that occurred before 1752 (5512) on the Jewish calendar with the civil calendar.
1516: Representatives of several towns including Frankfort and Worms attended a Diet at Frankfort to discuss how the Jews might be banished and never allowed to return.
1536: Catherine of Aragon, the wife of King Henry VIII of England, passed away. She was the daughter of the two monarchs who created the Spanish Inquisition and drove the Jews out of Spain. The Spanish monarchs would consent to their daughter’s marriage if Henry’s father would promise that no Jews would ever live in England. Ironically, it was Catherine’s inability to provide a male heir that led to the England’s break with the Catholic Church which would play in an indirect positive role in the return of the Jews to England.
1625: Ferdinand II issued decree of general expulsion that the Jews of Vienna were able to prevent from being carried out.
1768: Birthdate of Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. As King of Spain, he abolished the Inquisition.
1775: For the second time in two months, Empress Maria Theresa banished all the Jews of Bohemia and Moravia.
1800: Birthdate of President Millard Fillmore. In 1850, the American Minister to
Switzerland
signed a treaty with the Swiss Confederation establishing the rights of the citizens of each country to travel and sojourn in the other. However, the Swiss wished to limit the privileges to Christians. In a message to the Senate, Fillmore opposed the treaty because the
U.S.
government could not sanction an agreement that treated its citizens differently based on religion. This episode serves to underscore the difference between the Jewish experience in
America
and other parts of the world in which they had previously settled. Fillmore is living proof that the least of men can do the greatest of things.
1841: Birthdate of Israel Levy, the German-Jewish scholar whose first publication was Ueber Einige Fragmente aus der Mischna des Abba Saul
1843: The first Jewish service was held at the Wellington Hebrew Congregation in
Wellington
,
New Zealand
. There have been Jewish people in New Zealand from the beginnings of European settlement. In the north, Jewish traders from England, including John Montefiore, Joel Polack and David Nathan, were active from about 1830. Jews were on the first ships to arrive in Wellington. A Jewish community was founded in 1843 with the arrival from London of Abraham Hort. He held the first organized prayer service today, only days after he and his family arrived aboard the Prince of Wales.
1848: The Noah Benevolent Widows and Orphan’s Association was formed today. A fraternal and benevolent order formed by German Jews “who had fled to” the United States “during the German revolution,” it was first led my Mordecai Noah, a former Sheriff of New York.
1857(11th of Tevet, 5617): Sampson Simson passed away today in New York. Born at Danbury in 1781, he was the son of Solomon Simson and was partners with his in a firm known as Simson’s in Stone Street which “imported beaver coating and other articles.”
1858: Birthdate of Eliëzer Ben-Yehuda. Born Eliezer Yitzhak Perelman, in what is now Lithuania; Ben-Yehuda was the father of modern Hebrew. Ben-Yehuda adopted several plans of action to accomplish his goal. The main ones were three-fold, and they can be summarized as “Hebrew in the Home,” “Hebrew in the School,” and “Words, Words, Words.” By the time he died in 1922, Ben-Yehuda had almost singled-handedly transformed a “dead Biblical language” into a modern language that embodied the spirit of Zionism and the modern Jewish world.
1860:Solomon F. Joseph of the Portuguese Hebrew Society was chosen as one of the Directors of the Board of Deputies of Benevolent and Emigrant Societies at the organizations meeting held tonight at Cooper Institute in New York City
1863: Ohio Congressman George H. Pendleton introduced a resolution before the U.S. House of Representatives condemning General Order No. 11. Pendleton was “a Peace Democrat” so his resolution was more a reflection of his anti-war sentiments than of any great concern about the well-being of the Jews.
1865(9th of Tevet, 5625): Lazarus Simon Magnus Esq the beloved and only son of Simon Magnus of Chatham passed away today at the ago of 40. He was buried at the . Chatham (Kent) Jewish Cemetery
1865: Lazarus Magnus “developed a toothache. Despite an invitation from his brother-in-law to stay with him and his family Lazarus went back to his offices in London Bridge. He exchanged greetings with the housekeeper and asked her about the best remedy to the problem. The housekeeper suggested some laudanum on a piece of lint, but Magnus replied: “That is no use. I will try chloroform.” Unfortunately, this was a fatal mistake, that cost him his life - he died from inhaling too much of it.” Born in Chatham in 1826, he was a successful British businessman, leader of the Jewish community and Mayor of Queenborough.
1868: Birthdate of Abraham M "Mark" Lidzbarski. Born in
Russia
, he moved to
Germany
. A linguist and Orientalist, he was also known by the name Avraam-Mordekhay He passed away in 1928.
1873: Birthdate of Adolph Zukor, the American entrepreneur who built the
Paramount
movie empire.
1876(10th of Tevet, 5636): Asara B'Tevet
1877: It was reported today that Bishop Claughton presided over a meeting of several prominent English clergyman where they discussed the difficulty they were having in converting Jews to Christianity.
1878: It was reported today that the United States Consul at Florence had sent the State Department a report describing the government loan institutions (Monte di Pieta) of Italy first introduced by Bernasdoda Feltried toward the close of the 15th century which led to Jewish money-lenders being banish from Florence.
1884: The Hebrew Technical Institute, a vocational High School in New York City was founded on today. The school was founded after three Hebrew charity organizations formed a committee to promote technical education for the many Jewish immigrants arriving in New York at the time. The school closed in 1939
1884(9th of Tevet, 5644): Julius Hallgarten, the wealthy American banker, passed away today in Davos Switzerland.
1889(5th of Shevat, 5649): Asher Asher passed away in London. Born at Glasgow in 1837, “ was the first Scottish Jew to enter the medical profession” In 1873, he published The Jewish Rite of Circumcision. “Since 1910, the University of Glasgow awards the Asher Asher Memorial Medal and Prize, annually for its Ear, Nose and Throat course.”
1891: It was reported today that Captain A.F. Wild of the U.S. Secret service has arrested Antono Ruggiero, an Italian-Jew who used the alias Anthony Rogers on charges of having been involved with a ring that counterfeited two dollar bills.
1892: The Brooklyn Institute is scheduled to host a program entitled “The Policy of the Czar in the Expulsion of the Jews and the War of Movement in Europe” this evening.
1893: It was reported today that the meeting organized by the right-wing anti-Semitic journal Libre Parole was addressed by the Marquis de Mores. He opened his speech “with a general onslaught on the Hews as the corrupters of French honesty and the haters of French honor.”
1895: General Horace Porter, the President of the Union Club and his predecessor Chauncey M. Depew, refused to discuss the resignation of Edward Einstein from their organization. They did not dispute Einstein’s claim that he had left because a Jewish candidate had been blackballed because of his religion.
1895: “The Crusaders and Their Work” provides a detailed review of The Crusaders: The Story of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem by T.A. Archer and Charles L. Kingsford which attributes the practice of making pilgrimages to Jerusalem to the Jews in a period the pre-dates Christianity.
1896: Herzl's article "Die Lösung der Judenfrage" - "The Solution of the Jewish Question" appears in "The Jewish Chronicle" in
London
.
1896: Levi Freiburg, a fifty-year old Jew was being held on charges of child endangerment at the Lee Avenue Police Station.
1896(21st of Tevet, 5656): Fifty-seven year old Sir Julian Goldsmid, 3rd Baronet “a British lawyer, businessman and Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1866 and 1896” passed away today at Brighton.
1897: The annual meeting of the Educational Alliance was held tonight Temple Emanu-El in New York City
1898: The Brooklyn Hebrew Hospital Society applied to the State Board of Charities for a certificate of incorporation.
1898: Three men were hung today at Hahnville in St. Charles Parish, LA for their part in murdering a Jewish peddler name Ziegler after they had robbed him while he was at the Ellington Plantation.
1903: In
Paris
, Herzl discusses the reply to the British government with Nordau, Leopold Greenberg and Alexander Marmorek and to take counsel on subsequent action.
1910: Birthdate of Baron Alain de Rothschild. He was part of the French banking family
1915: During WW I, Alexander Helphand a Ukrainian born Jew who was also known as Israel Lazarevich Gelfand and who had risen to prominence in the Bolshevik movement, approached the German Ambassador in Constantinople. He contended that the Germans and the Bolsheviks should make common cause because they had similar goals, the overthrow of the Czar and the dismemberment of the Russian Empire into smaller entities. This intitial overture would ultimately lead to the Germans shipping Lenin and his supporters back to Russia during the Russian Revolution to ensure that Russia would make a separate peace with the Kaiser.
1916: In an article entitled “Rabbi Silver Will Talk on General Subjects,” The Wheeling Register reports on a series of upcoming Sunday lectures to be delivered at the Eoff Street Temple. "The general subject for the series will be Aspects of American Life. The lectures will touch on topics related to business, home, the stage, politics, school and the press and will be given in Rabbi Silver's characteristic manner."
1917: Birthdate of Alfred Mordecai Freedman, a psychiatrist and social reformer who led the American Psychiatric Association in 1973 when, overturning a century-old policy, it declared that homosexuality was not a mental illness/
1920: Louis Waldman and Charles Solomon were among the five members of the Socialist Party that the New York State Assembly refused to seat as Assemblymen.
1921: Publication of the first edition of the resurrected Yiddish language newspaper Der Emmes (The Truth) published by Yevsektsiya, the Jewish section of the Communist Party. An earlier version of the paper had been published in 1918 in Moscow. The paper would cease publication in 1939 when it fell victim to an anti-Yiddish campaign in the Soviet Union.
1921: A Commission in
Jerusalem
reports that at present there is no way to secure an appointment of a Hahambashi for
Palestine
that would satisfy all sections of the community. They recommend the formation of a supreme religious council that will represent both Sephardic and Ashkenazi communities.
1921: Birthdate of
Chester
Kallman. Kallman was a poet, librettist and translator. From a professional point of view, his greatest claim to fame may rest on his work with Igor Stavinsky. But he may be equally famous for the fact that for thirty-five years he was the companion of poet W.H. Auden with whom he also collaborated professionally. Kallman passed away in 1975.
1922: The partner’s of Edgar Speyer published a letter supporting their business partner and rejected rthe implications of his correspondence with his German relatives, stating that he was "incapable of any act of treachery against the country of his adoption"
1923(19th of Tevet, 5683): Emil Gustav Hirsch “a major Reform movement rabbi in the United States” passed away. Born on May 22, 1852 in Luxembourg, he was “a son of the rabbi and philosopher Samuel Hirsch. He later married the daughter of Rabbi David Einhorn. For forty-two years (1880-1922), Hirsch served as the rabbi of Chicago Sinai Congregation, one of the oldest synagogues in the midwest. At this post, he became well-known for an emphasis on social justice. From Chicago Sinai's pulpit, he delivered rousing sermons on the social ills of the day and many Chicagoans, Jew and gentile alike, were in attendance. Appointed professor of rabbinical literature and philosophy at the University of Chicago in 1892, Hirsch also served on the Chicago Public Library board from 1885 to 1897. He was an influential exponent of advanced thought and Reform Judaism. He edited Der Zeitgeist (Milwaukee) (1880–82) and the Reform Advocate (1891–1923). He also edited the Department of the Bible of the Jewish Encyclopedia. Hirsch is the namesake of the Emil G. Hirsch Metropolitan High School of Communications (Hirsch Metro), located in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago. In keeping with his interest in education, Hirsch advised a wealthy congregant, Julius Rosenwald of Sears, Roebuck & Co., to use part of his wealth to help build public schools which black students could attend in the segregated south. The school building program was one of the largest programs, but not the only, administered by the Rosenwald Fund.
1924: George Gershwin completes “Rhapsody in Blue.”
1925: Musical "Big Boy" with Al Jolson premiered in
New York City
.
1926: George Burns married Gracie Allen. He was Jewish. She wasn’t.
1927: Abe Saperstein’s Harlem Globetrotters play their first game in
Hinckley
,
Illinois
.
1927: A memorial service was held for the late Zionist poet Achad Ha’Am at New York’s Cooper Union.
1931: Doar Hayom, the newspaper of the Revisionists, published a demand that the election for the Jewish-elected Assembly be declared null and void and that new elections should be held.
1932: Chaim Arlosoroff, head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency, wrote a letter to High Commissioner Viscount Ord Plumer proposing that the municipal region of Jerusalem should be divided into two boroughs: West Jerusalem, which was mostly Jewish and the Old City which was largely Arab. A United Municipal Council would oversee these to two sub-entities. The British rejected the proposal lest it anger the Arabs.
1934: The New York Times reported on the recent announcement that 200 Jewish families, drawn from the ranks of jobless needle trade workers in
New York
, are to be settled in an industrial-agrarian community on a 1,000-acre tract of land bought for the purpose in
New Jersey
. This move calls attention to the new back-to-the-land movement among the Jews of the
United States
1935: Birthdate of Noam Sheriff. He is one of
Israel
’s most versatile and world renowned musicians. He studied composition and conducting in Tel-Aviv (Paul Ben-Chaim),
Berlin
(Boris Blacher) and
Salzburg
(Igor Markevitch) and philosophy at the
Jerusalem
University
. Since the premiere of his work, Festival Prelude, by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein at the opening of the Mann Auditorium in Tel-Aviv in 1957, his works are regularly performed in
Israel
and all over the world. In his music one finds an original solution to the fusion between East and West, between the musical elements of the ancient Mediterranean countries and the musical culture of the West. Among his most significant works are the three vocal big scale works which form a trilogy. Mechaye Hamethim (Revival of the Dead) which was premiered in 1987 in
Amsterdam
by the IPO and is based on the Jewish East-European traditional music as well as the ancient Jewish oriental themes of the Samaritans. Sephardic Passion which was premiered in 1992 in Toledo, Spain, by the IPO, Zubin Mehta and Placido Domingo is based on the Music of the Sephardic Jewry and Psalms of Jerusalem which was premiered in 1995 in Jerusalem to open the 3000 years celebrations to the City with its four choirs around the hall singing in Hebrew and Latin.His newest vocal work, “Genesis”, was commissioned and premiered by the Israel Philharmonic and Maestro Zubin Mehta at the festive concerts of Israel’s 50th Independence day. His "Mechaye Hamethim" was performed by the IPO under Mehta in a unique concert for
Israel
's 50th anniversary at “Yad Vashem"
Holocaust
Museum
in
Jerusalem
. Noam Sheriff conducts regularly his works and other works of the orchestral repertory all over the world. From 1989 until 1995, he was the music director of the Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon Le-Zion which had, under his leadership, a success unprecedented in Israeli musical history. Since 1963 Noam Sheriff has been teaching composition and conducting. He taught in institutes as the
Jerusalem
and
Tel
Aviv
Universities
as well as the Musikhochschule in
Cologne
and the Mozarteum in
Salzburg
. During those years he was directing many music festivals in
Israel
as well as various television and radio programs. Since 1990 Noam Sheriff has been Professor for composition and conducting at the
Tel-Aviv
University
's Rubin Academy of Music. Since January 2002 he has been the music director of the Israel Chamber Orchestra. The orchestra, under his leadership has won the praise of the critics and audiences in the season 2002-3, his first season as its music director. Since April 2004 he has been nominated as Music Director of the New Haifa Symphony Orchestra. Noam Sheriff is the winner of the prestigious Emet Prize for the year 2003, the highest prize given in
Israel
for excellence in Sciences and culture.”
1935(3rd of Shevat, 5695): Rabbi Yosef ben Rabbi Menachem Kalisch zt"l, the Amshinover Rebbe, passed away.
1935: Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval sign the Franco–Italian Agreement. The Italians were looking for a free hand in their conquest of Abyssinia (modern day Ethiopia). The French were looking for support in dealing with Hitler. The irony of this is that Pierre Laval would become the Prime Minister of Vichy France a role which enable him to ship thousands of French Jews to Drancy and then on to the death camps in the East. Mussolini, who had support of some Italian Jews and a Jewish mistress, would become Hitler’s ally.
1935: Birthdate of Joe Wizan the head of 20th Century Fox's motion picture division and an independent producer of films such as "Jeremiah Johnson" and "… And Justice for All” (As reported by Dennis McLellan,
1938: The Palestine Postreported that Romania started re-examining the naturalization of all "foreigners" who had settled there since 1913, in order to deprive them of their citizenship. The first victims of the new policy were Jewish doctors who lost their right to practice medicine. Jewish innkeepers were declared to be "dangerous". All Jews were divided into citizens and non-citizens, and the latter became the subject of a compulsory expulsion. A timely British note reminded Romania of her obligations under the Minorities Treaty, signed in Paris in 1910.
1939: Official founding of the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra.
1940(26th of Tevet, 5700): State Supreme Court Justice Alfred Frankenthaler passed away tonight at the age of 58. Born in 1881, he attended City College, where he developed a life-long friendship with Felix Frankfurter and graduated from Columbia Law School in 1903. Frankenthaler was active in Democratic Party Politics, numerous civic and professional organizations and Jewish charitable activities.
1941: Members of the Woman’s League for Palestine are using tonight performance of “Meet the People,” the new topical, musical revue at the Mansfield Theatre as a benefit for the Overseas Refugee Relief fund. The net proceeds will augment the $25,000 Emergency Refugee Relief Fund for young women refugees sheltered in the two home of the league in Haifa and Tel Aviv.
1942: A major Arctic blast hit the
Levant
. The thermometer in Alexandria was six degrees below zero, five people were killed because of the snow in Lebanon, Jerusalem suffered damage when buildings in the Old City were cracked from ice buildup, and in Istanbul the city suffered deaths and was stifled with three feet of snow, twelve degrees below zero temperatures and "hungry wolves" in the neighborhood.
1942: Throughout the day at the Chelmno,
Poland
, death camp, Jewish deportees from nearby villages are systematically gassed in vans; German and Ukrainian workers pull gold teeth and fillings from the corpses' mouths. Germans undertake van gassings of 5000 Gypsies from
Lódz
,
Poland
.
1943: British Colonial Secretary Oliver Stanley informs the British War Cabinet that
Germany
's Eastern European allies have turned to a policy of expulsion of Jews as an alternative to exterminating them. He concludes that this change in policy makes it "all the more necessary" to limit the number of Jewish children accepted into
Palestine
.
1943: Over the next three weeks, twenty thousand Jews from
Germany
,
Belgium
,
Holland
, and
Poland
are gassed at
Auschwitz
.
1944: Word reached those living in New York City that Rabbi Louis Werfel, the 27-year-old chaplain serving with the 12th Air Force Service Command was killed in a plane crash in Algeria on Christmas Eve, 1943. Werfel was the fourth Jewish chaplain be killed in line of duty during World War II. Werfel was known as “the flying rabbi” because of his willingness to use aircraft to reach Jewish soldiers serving in far-flung outposts throughout the Mediterranean Theatre
1945: Birthdate of Shulamith Bath Shmuel Ben Ari Feuerstein, author of The Dialectic of Sex
1948: With
Jerusalem
under siege, members of the Irgun planted a bomb at the Jaffa Gate in an attempt to get food supplies into the Jewish quarter. The bomb killed fourteen Arabs. Three members of the Irgun were killed by British police in the aftermath of the explosion. Apparently the British were unable to keep the Arabs from trying to starve out the Jews but they were strong enough to kill the Jews where were trying to feed their co-religionists.
1949: During Israel’s War of Independence Operation Horev came to an end.
1949: At two o’clock in the afternoon, Israel accepts a ceasefire on the Egyptian front based on Egypt’s publicly announced willingness to negotiate an armistice.
Egypt
is left in control of
Gaza
, but
Israel
has driven the Egyptians from the
Negev
.
1949: During the War for Independence Israel shot down 5 British planes that flew over the battlefront with Egypt. The British government was hardly a disinterested party during the war. The Jordanian Army, known as the Arab Legion, drew its leadership from the British Army. The British supplied and trained the force as well. The actions of the RAF at this point, further debunk the notion that the British were neutrals and that the West was responsible for the creation and survival of the infant state of Israel.
1950:The "ten greatest Jews of the last fifty years" were named today by Rabbi Israel Goldstein in a sermon at Congregation B'nai Jeshurun, in New York City.
1951: As it starts its first post-independence tour in the United States, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) has its first performance at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.
1953:The eightieth anniversary of American Reform Judaism, founded in Cincinnati by the late Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise "to adapt Judaism to the American way of life," was marked tonight with special ceremonies and a dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. More than 300 American Jewish leaders from various sections of the country attended.
1953: The Jerusalem Postreported that the Knesset debated the proposed State Archives' and Public Accountants' Bills. Israel seized an Egyptian ship with a cargo of 65 tons of arms, bound for Syria. The ship was reported to have run aground in Israel's territorial waters.
1953: President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb. The bomb had been successfully tested at Eniwetok atoll in 1952. The creation of the H-bomb had pitted Edward Teller against Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the Atomic Bomb.” The two Jewish physicists became the poles around which the proponents and opponents rallied during this major Cold War debate.
1958: As Israel transitioned from its 7th government to its 8th government, Golda Meir continued to serve as Foreign Minister.
1967(25th of Tevet, 5727): American author and screen writer David Goodis, passed away.
1969: Birthdate of Israeli comedian and television performer Eyal Kitzis.
1970: In response to cross canal attacks by Egyptian forces, Israeli planes begin an in-depth bombing campaign against Egyptian military bases.
1971(10th of Tevet, 5731): Asara B'Tevet
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported from Cairo Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's announcement that after the signing of the peace agreement he would not accept the presence of even a single Israeli soldier or civilian who would like to remain on Egyptian soil.
1979: The New York Times book section features the following Walter Kerr’s essay on Anne Frank entitled 'Anne Frank' Shouldn't Be Anne's Play
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/26/home/anne-kerr.html
1984: Birthdate of Ran Danker an Israeli actor, singer, and model who “is the son of Israeli actor Eli Danker. He has sung such songs as "אני אש" ("I am Fire"). He has also starred in the hit Israeli series HaShir Shelanu.”
1984(4thof Shevat, 5744): Eighty-four year old Yisrael Abuhatzeira, the Moroccan born Sephardic Rabbi knownas the Baba Slali or Praying father passed away in Jerusalem.
http://www.ou.org/about/judaism/rabbis/babasali.htm
1990: In article entitled “The Russians Are Coming In Droves,” Barrymore L. Scherer described the “torrent of music that has pouring our way” in a variety of recordings including a live recording Shostakovich's weirdly disturbing Violin Concerto No. 1 (coupled with the Glazunov Concerto), both performed at Tel Aviv's Mann Auditorium in July 1988 by Itzhak Perlman with the Israel Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta (EMI CDC 49814; CD and cassette).
1993: Showing some flexibility in the crisis over 415 deported Palestinians, Israel agreed today to allow two Red Cross officials, including a doctor, to visit the exiles at their tent camp in southern Lebanon.
1995(6th of Sh'vat, 5755): Harry Golombek passed away. Born in 1911, Harry Golombek, was a British chess player and honorary grandmaster.
1995(6th of Sh'vat, 5755): Economist Murray Newton Rothabard passes away at the age of 69. Born in 1926 and educated at Columbia. Rothbard was the co-founder of the Cato Institute.
1996: Debbie Friedman gave a sold out concert at Carnegie Hall, commemorating twenty-five years as one of the world's most well-known contemporary Jewish musicians. “Known for her folksy and "singer-friendly" style, Friedman has recorded twenty albums that have sold over 200,000 copies. Friedman began recording on her own label in 1972, appealing largely to Reform Jews and those interested in Jewish Renewal. Now, her music is sung in synagogues across the
United States
and has become so widespread that, in many places, it is thought of as "traditional." Since its release in 1993, her "Mi Sheberach" prayer has become the fastest adopted liturgical melody in both the Reform and Conservative movements. The 1999 release of Friedman's first English-language album, "It's You," marked the singer/songwriter's first effort to reach a broader, not-necessarily-Jewish audience. That same year, Hallmark began releasing a series of Jewish holiday cards featuring Friedman's lyrics. A committed Jewish feminist, Friedman also composed all the music for the tremendously popular Maayan Women's Seder. She is famous for her inspiring live concerts, performing and teaching in communities, synagogues, schools and Federations throughout
Europe
,
Israel
,
Canada
, and the
U.S.
”
2001 (12th of Tevet, 5761): Seventy-two year old “Rabbi Yitzchok Singer, whose leadership of the historic Bialystoker Synagogue on the Lower East Side of Manhattan helped it thrive despite four decades of community change, passed away today at Beth Israel Medical Center.” (As reported by Nadine Brozan)
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/12/nyregion/rabbi-yitzchok-singer-72-led-bialystoker-synagogue.html
2001: Giving its stalled Middle Eastern peace effort one final push, the Clinton administration said today that it would send its top negotiator to the region this week for direct talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Dennis Ross, the State Department's envoy to the Middle East, will try to lay the groundwork for what Israeli and Palestinian officials describe as anything from a joint declaration of general principles for making peace to an ambitious framework accord for a final settlement to the half-century-old conflict.
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount by Gershom Gorenberg, To Redeem One Person is to Redeem the World:The Life of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann By Gail A. Hornstein and Future Success by Robert B. Reich
2001: Among the 28 recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medals were
Jack Greenberg
In the courtroom and the classroom, Jack Greenberg has been a crusader for freedom and equality for more than half a century. Arguing 40 civil rights cases before the United States Supreme Court, including the historic Brown v. Board of Education, he helped break down the legal underpinnings of desegregation in America, and as a professor of law, an advocate for international human rights, and head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, he has helped shape a more just society.
Anthony Lewis
Revered by colleagues and readers alike for his Pulitzer prize-winning reporting, profound insight, and broad understanding of constitutional law, Anthony Lewis has set the highest standard of journalistic ethics and excellence. A staunch defender of freedom of speech, individual rights, and the rule of law, he has been a clear and courageous voice for democracy and justice.
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