January 9 In History
1180: Philip Augustus (the new king of
France
) arrested large numbers of Jews while his father, Louis
VII
, who tried to protect the Jews (though not always successfully) was still alive. All the Jews found in synagogue on the Sabbath were arrested. Philip agreed to free them for 15,000 silver marks.
1324: Explorer Marco Polo passed away. Marco Polo told of meeting Chinese Jews in his 1286 journey to
China
1349: On an island in the
Rhine
River
, seven hundred Jews of
Basel
Switzerland
were burned alive in houses especially constructed for that purpose. Their children were spared from the burning but were forcibly baptized instead. The first Swiss persecution of the Jews took place in
Bern
, where the Jewish community was accused of having murdered a Christian boy named Rudolf (Ruff). They were expelled from
Bern
but then allowed to return shortly after.
1554: Birthdate of Pope Gregory XV. Gregory strongly supported the censorship of Hebrew books by the Catholic Church. During his papacy, the Roman Inquisition appointed three different men to serve as “expurgators of Hebrew books.
1570: The Inquisition was established in Peru.
1779: During the American Revolution, Lewis Bush, a Jewish Philadelphia, became a 1st Lieutenant of the 6th Pennsylvania Battalion.
1788:
Connecticut
became the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Jews have been a part of
Connecticut
since colonial times. The Pinto family was one of the most prominent during the Revolutionary War. Solomon Pinto was one of four brothers who fought in the war. The wounded veteran was one of the original members of the Society of the Cincinnati, a Revolutionary War veterans’ organization. Today Jews make up about 3 per cent of the state’s population and is home to the Hebrew High School of New England. Many people know the name of Joe Lieberman, the first Jew to run for Vice President on the ticket of a major national party. To an earlier generation, the name Abe Ribbicoff was of equal importance. At a time when Jewish national political leaders were still rare, Ribbicoff was by turn, governor, Senator and Secretary of H.E.W. under John Kennedy.
1810 (4th of Shevat, 5570): Rabbi Abraham of Kalisk passed away. Born in 1741, he was a controversial figure in the 3rd generation of Chassidic leaders. In his youth, he was a study partner of Rabbi Elijah "the Gaon of Vilna", who led the initial opposition against Chassidism; but later Rabbi Abraham himself joined the forbidden kat ("sect", as the Chassidic movement was derisively called by its opponents) and became a disciple of Rabbi DovBer, the Maggid of Mezeritch, the successor to Chassidism's founder, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov. After Rabbi DovBer's passing in 1772, much of the opposition to Chassidism was directed against Rabbi Abraham's disciples, who, more than any other group within the movement, mocked the intellectual elitism of the establishment's scholars and communal leaders; even Rabbi Abraham's own colleagues were dismayed by the "antics" of some of his disciples. In 1777, Rabbi Abraham joined the first Chassidic "aliyah", in which a group of more than 300 Chassidim led by Rabbi Menachem Mendel of
Vitebsk
immigrated to the
Holy Land
. Rabbi Abraham passed away in Tiberias on the 4th of Shevat of the year 5570 from creation (1810 CE).
1821: Birthdate of Senator William Sharon who left $5,000 to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum in San Francisco when he passed away.
1843: Birthdate of Elizabeth Rose Cohen, oldest sister of famed musician Frederic Hymen Cowen.
1851: In Cayuga County, New York, District Attorney Theodore M. Pomeroy began presenting the state’s case in the trial of John Baham who is accused of murdering Nathan Adler, a Jewish peddler from Syracuse.
1863(18th of Tevet, 5623): Julius Lettman, died today of wounds suffered while fighting for the Union at the Battle of Stones River in Murfreesboro. He was buried at the Temple Cemetery in Nashville, TN the nine acres of which remain the primary place of interment for the Temple Congregation Ohabai Sholom—the city’s oldest.
1870: Birthdate of Joseph Strauss. The
Cincinnati
born and educated engineer was the Chief Engineer for the construction of
San Francisco
’s
Golden Gate
Bridge
.
1870: It was reported today that The Jewish Messenger is now in its fourteenth year of publication.
1873: Emperor Napoleon III of France passed away. Jews played an open role in French society during the time dominated by Napoleon. Achille Fould served as minister and political advisor to the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. During the debate about the nature of the monetary system that took place during Napoleon’s reign the Pireire brothers (Sephardic Jews) favored paper money while Alphonse de Rothschild defended preservation of France's bimetallism system. In 1870, Napoleon’s French government granted the Jews of Algeria French citizenship. Among his mistresses was Elisa Rachel Felix, better known as Mademoiselle Rachel, the young Jewess who was one of the most prominent performers of her time. But Napoleon’s greatest impact on the Jewish people would be indirect. His foolish war with Prussia resulted in the emergence of the German Empire, created the anger that would lead to World War I that then led to World War II.
1873: At the request of the Grant Administration, Abraham de Sola delivered opening prayer at the House of Representatives. [For some strange reason we remember Grant’s unfortunate Order #10 while overlooking items like this.]
1873: Birthdate of Chaim Nachman Bialik. Born in a Ukrainian village, fatherless at the age of seven, raised by a strict Orthodox grandfather, Bialik became the father of Modern Hebrew poetry. While Herzl, Ben-Gurion and others were busy creating Zionism in the political sphere, Bialik was one of those giving birth to the Zionist dream in the field of culture. When he began writing his poetry in Hebrew, it was still a language of the Bible - the holy tongue not to be used in modern parlance. Bialik used Hebrew to express modern feelings and emotions, yet always tied back to his Jewish roots. He is variously described as the "poet laureate of the Jewish national movement" and "
Israel
's National Poet." He gained early fame for his two poems written after the Kishinev Pogrom in 1903 - The City of Slaughter and On the Slaughter. In his poems he attacked the mobs who had slaughtered the Jews. But he also called upon the Jews to resist future attackers. So powerful were his words, that they helped the modern Zionist movement develop its ethic of self-defense. According to some critics, two of his greatest poems are "
Metei
Midbar
" (Dead of the Desert) and "Megillat Ha'esh" (Scroll of Fire). He passed away in 1934 and his home in Tel Aviv was converted into a museum named in his honor.
Bialik in his own words:
"Reading a poem in translation is like kissing a woman through a veil."
"Each people has as much heaven over its head as it has land under its feet."
"Say this when you mourn for me:
There was man -- and look, he is no more.
He died before his time.
The music of his life suddenly stopped.
A pity! There was another song in him.
Now it is lost forever."
1886: Birthdate of Ida Kaganovich the native of Russia who as Ida Cohen Rosenthal became a co-founder of Maiden Form, the first company to make modern bras.
1887: President Hoffman presided over the annual meeting of the Hebrew Technical Institute which was held today at Temple Emanuel.
1889: Approximately 300 children from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum are scheduled to see a performance of “Little Lord Fauntleroy” thanks to the generosity of Mr. Sanger who manages the Broadway Theatre.
1891: It was reported today that annual meeting of those supporting the Hebrew Technical Institute will be held in New York City next week.
1893: It was reported today that 88.61% of the 3,159 patients who were admitted to Mt. Sinai Hospital last year were “treated gratuitously” meaning that only 11.39% were “pay patients.” The hospital has treated 43,674 patients since its founding.
1893: It was reported that the Boy’s Yorkville Charitable Society, an organization started by a group of Jewish boys ranging in age from 11 to 15 had raised $160 through their various activities in 1892 which they had divided among various groups dedicated to helping the needy.
1894: It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities is one of the agencies that will share in the proceeds from an upcoming benefit concert to be held at the Metropolitan Opera House.
1894: The Hebrew Technical Institute was incorporated today in New York.
1895: It was reported today that claims that the Pale of Settlement has been abolished are “premature.”
1896: It was reported today that the Young Folk’s League of the Hebrew Asylum will hold its first social activity of the season next week.
1898: It was reported today that a corner lot on First Avenue in New York has been purchased for the use of an unidentified Jewish charitable institution.
1898: The band from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum is scheduled to perform at ball sponsored by the Ladies Aid Society at Congregation Ansche Chesed.
1898: It was reported today that J. Earnest G. Yalden, the Superintendent of the Bard de Hirsch Trade School in New York City presented diplomas to forty graduates of the school
1899: It was reported today that “the Court of Cassation” which is the court of last resort in France, “is convinced that Dreyfus was justly condemned.”
1899: Mrs. Esther Wallenstein, President of the Hebrew Infant Asylum filed a complaint at the Morrisania Police Court charging John Buchanan and Paul Beneson with trespass and disorderly conduct at the asylum’s building one 162ndStreet and Eagle Avenue
1899: It was reported today Professor Richard Gottheil of Columbia University delivered a lecture entitled “Palestine” at a recent function hosted by the Young Ladies’ and Gentlemen’s League of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society
1899: It was reported today that supporters of the Hebrew Technical Institute had raised $50,501.87 during the past year to support the institution. Jacob H. Schiff made a special contribution of $5,000 which will help to meet the needs of boys who would have had to leave the school because of their impoverished circumstances.
1902: Birthdate of Rudolph Bing manger of the New York Metropolitan Opera.
1903(10th of Tevet, 5663): Asara B'Tevet
1903(10th of Tevet, 5663): Baron Henry de Worms (Lord Pirbright) passed away today. Born in London in 1840, he was “third son of Solomon Benedict de Worms, a baron of the Austrian empire. He was educated at King's College, London, and became a barrister in 1863. As Baron Henry de Worms he sat in the House of Commons as Conservative member for Greenwich from 1880 to 1885, and for the East Toxteth division of Liverpool from 1885 to 1895, when he was created a peer. He was parliamentary secretary to the Board of Trade in 1885 and 1886 and from 1886 to 1888, and under-secretary of state for the colonies from 1888 to 1892. In 1888 he was president of the International Conference on Sugar Bounties, and as plenipotentiary signed the abolition treaty for Great Britain. He became a member of the Privy Council in the same year. He was a royal commissioner of the Patriotic Fund, and one of the royal commissioners of the French Exhibition of 1900. His works include: "England's Policy in the East" (London, 1876), "Handbook to the Eastern Question" (5th ed., London, 1877), "The Austro-Hungarian Empire" (2d ed., London, 1877), "Memoirs of Count Beust" (ib. 1887).In 1864 he married Fanny, daughter of Baron von Tedesco of Vienna, and in 1887, after her death, Sarah, daughter of Sir Benjamin Samuel Phillips.” (As reported by the Jewish Encyclopedia)
1904: The New York Times featured a review of Zionism and Anti-Semitism by Max Nordau, Officer d' Academie, France, and Gustav Gotthell, Ph.D.
1908(5th of Sh'vat, 5668): Abraham Goldfaden died at the age of 67. Born in 1840 in what was then part of the Russian Empire, Golfaden was a driving force in the Yiddish theatre during its golden period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was an author, composer (yes, there were musicals), director and producer. He worked in several countries in
Europe
before settling in the
United States
for the last time in 1903. He was the author of sixty theatrical works, some of which are enjoying renewed interest with the current renaissance of Yiddish Literature. One of his early comedies was called Shmendrik "whose title-hero was the proverbial gullible, good-natured schlemiel. The play was so popular, that the word Shmendrik became part of the Yiddish language and survives today in American slang. The music for the famous Yiddish lullaby "Rozhinkes mit Mandlen," (Raisin and Almonds) is a product of one of Goldfaden's musicals. Goldfaden was so famous at the time of his death that he rated an obituary in the New York times that referred to him as "the Yiddish Shakespeare," who was "both a poet and prophet." Furthermore, wrote the Times, "…there is more evidence of genuine sympathy with and admiration for the man and his work than is likely to be manifested at the funeral of any poet now writing in the English language in this country." We may not recognize his name today, but 75,000 people "attended his funeral procession that went from the People's Theater in the Bowery to
Washington
Cemetery
in
Brooklyn
."
1908: In
Little Rock
,
Arkansas
, for the sum of $8,000 the Orthodox congregation purchased their own building at the corner of 8th and
Louisiana
. This was the first official home of Agudath Achim Synagogue.
1913: Birthdate of Richard M. Nixon. As the leader of the Right Wing of the Republican Party, Nixon was not popular with most Jewish voters. While he did have Jews working for him (William Safire, Leonard Garment and Henry Kissinger) Nixon’s anti-Semitic comments are a matter of public record. From the point of view of many of his Jewish opponents Nixon’s saving grace came when he came to the aid of
Israel
during the darkest days of the Yom Kippur War. Without his efforts, the IDF would not have received the material and supplies that were critical in defeating the Egyptian and Syrian sneak attack. (“No man is all good or all bad. But sometimes you have to look real hard.”)
1916: Eighty-two year old Edward Levy-Lawson, 1st Baron Burnham, a British press lord whose power stemmed from his ownership of the Daily Telegraph, a paper bought by his father Joseph Moses Levy, passed away today.
1917: British forces defeated the Turks at the Battle of Rafa on the border between
Egypt
and Ottoman Palestine. The British victory was a prelude to the move of British forces into
Palestine
and other parts of the
Ottoman Empire
. The British forces fighting in
Palestine
would include Jewish regiments. The British victories would be critical to eventual implementation of the Balfour Declaration and the realization of Herzl’s dream.
1918: “ Behind Walls” by Henri Nathansen had its first performance in the United States at the German Irving Place Theatre in New York City. The drama which was originally walled “Hinter Mauren” revolves around the marriage between a Jew and a Gentile. Nathansen is a Dane.
1921: Birthdate of composer, pianist and cellist Seymour Barab.
1922: Sir Edgar Speyer issued a statement responding to the report and rebutting the Home Office's Certificates of Naturalization (Revocation) Committee’s interpretation of the facts. He stated that he had been advised of the committee's investigation in 1919 and, after considerable delay by the Home Office, had persuaded it to carry out an investigation in America into allegations made against his conduct there. These investigations, he stated, had demonstrated that the allegations were false, but, after he returned to Britain for the formal hearing in 1921, a further series of allegations were presented regarding his business transactions. Speyer stated that the issues involved were of a trivial nature and were similar to those encountered by other British banks which had traded without censure. He stated that "the whole thing is neither more nor less than the culmination of years of political persecution. The Home Secretary simply dared not give me the vindication to which I was entitled." He challenged the government to publish the evidence presented, and "to point to a strip of material evidence that would induce any fair-minded man to support the monstrous conclusions of this report.
1925: Birthdate of Gurion Joseph Hyman, a “Canadian Jewish Anthropologist, Linguist, Pharmacist, Composer, Artist, and Translator. Primary contributions have been (a) liturgical compositions for the Passover Haggadah and Sabbath prayer service, (b) translations into English as well as the setting to music of several internationally acclaimed Yiddish poets, (c) an (ongoing) project to write an etymological dictionary of Yiddish, and (d) proprietor of the second branch of Hyman's Book and Art Shoppe.”
1927:
Houston
S. Chamberlain passed away. Born in
Britain
in 1855, Chamberlain eventually settled in
Germany
where his writings were quite popular. Chamberlain was noted for his works about the Aryan Race and the superiority of German culture. Chamberlain was popular with Kaiser Wilhelm II and Adolph Hitler. Hitler called him “The Prophet of the Third Reich.”
1928: Birthdate of Judith Krantz. Born in New York, she is the author of Scruples, I'll Take Manhattan, Princess Daisy and Dazzle.
1938: The Palestine Post reported on various shooting incidents in
Jerusalem
, Kalkilya and
Nablus
. A delegation of Polish Jews met the British ambassador in
Warsaw
and expressed their anxiety over the reports that a permanent minority status for the Jews in
Palestine
was under consideration. Similar fears were expressed in a telegram sent by the French section of the Jewish Agency to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
1938: In article entitled “Palestine Modernized” George Brandt describes Tel Aviv as being the “most spectacular of the modern achievements in Palestine.” With a population of well over 100,000 “the world’s newest city is also its most modern.” As Brandt “rode through Tel Aviv’s well-paved streets” he “felt as though” he “were in the world of Well’s ‘Things To Come.’” He concludes that “the greatest enemy of young reborn Palestine is the desert. Will be be pushed back by the new forces or will it in years to come be the eventual victor.
1940: A throng of 2,500 people attended the funeral of State Supreme Court Justice Alfred Fankenthaler which was held this afternoon at Temple Emanu-El in New York City. Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson and Cantor Moshe Rudinow officiated at the service. Senator Robert Wagener delivered the eulogy. New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and former Governor Al Smith, who were honorary pallbearers, were among the many dignitaries who attended the service.
1941(10th of Tevet, 5701): Asara B'Tevet
1941: The Jews of Warsaw were forbidden to greet a German in public.
1941: Six thousand Jews exterminated in a pogrom in
Bucharest
,
Romania
1941: Nazi police break into a house in the Warsaw Ghetto, force the women inside to undress, and prod their breasts and genitals with pistols.
1941: Adolf Hitler officially abandoned the planned invasion of Great Britain. This meant that the Jews of Great Britain would be spared the horrors of the Holocaust. Unfortunately for the Jews of the Soviet Union, this meant that the Nazis would turn their time and attention to the invasion of that country which would take place in June of 1941.
1942: The Nazis deported 1,000 Jews from Theresienstadt and sent them to
Riga
. Only 102 would survive the war.
1942: The Nazis took 1,000 Jews from Klodaw to Chelmno and gassed them to death.
1943: Jews in the
Netherlands
are no longer allowed to have bank accounts. Instead, all Jewish money is put into a central account.
1943: Germans apprehend, torture, and kill 20-year-old Jewish partisan Emma Radova.
1943: The British magazine New Statesman urges that Jewish refugees be allowed at least temporarily into all nations, including 40,000 more into
Palestine
.
1943: In
Germany
, clothing taken off of the dead Jews were given to the German People's Winter Aid Campaign. The group complained that the clothes were soiled and stained with blood. Furthermore, the Jewish stars had not been removed.
1948: As the siege of
Jerusalem
continues, a British police driver was killed when his armored car hit an Irgun roadblock.
1950: The government of
Israel
recognizes the People's Republic of China
1951 In the Negev, founding of Kfar Yeruham which became the modern town of Yerhum in 1962. “Yeruham is the site of Tel Rahma, dating back to the 10th century BCE. On the outskirts of Yeruham is an ancient well, Be'er Rahma (באר רחמה). Some archeologists have identified it as the well where the biblical Hagar drew water for her son Ishmael.”
1951: Shlomo Zalaman Shragai, a member of the National Religious Party was chosen as Mayor of Jerusalem. This marked the end of the public career of Daniel Auster, “who was known as the ‘first Hebrew mayor of
Jerusalem
.’”
1953: The Jerusalem Postreported extensively on the bitter dispute raging between the Mapai and Mapam factions at Kibbutz Ein Harod. Members of the respective parties came to blows and only police arrival saved the kibbutz, already suffering from economic demise, from extensive damage. Henry Byroade, of the U.S. State Department, invited all Arab states to join the newly created Anglo-American Mediterranean Defense Alliance.
1956: Abigail Van Buren's "Dear Abby" column appeared for the first time
1957: Jacob K. Javits completed his term as New York State Attorney General.
1957: In case of Jew follows Jew, Jacob K. Javits begins serving as U.S. Senator filling the seat that had been held by Herbert H. Lehman. Javits was a Republican. Lehman was a Democrat.
1957: British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned, citing health reasons. The real reason
Eden
resigned was because of the failure of his policy in the
Middle East
. He had sought to unseat President Nasser of
Egypt
by joining with the French and Israelis in the Suez Campaign of 1956. During the 1930’s,
Eden
had been one of the few English politicians who saw the threat that Hitler posed to the peace of
Europe
. At the same time, according to some,
Eden
was one of those who opposed any attempts to rescue the Jews of Europe once the war had begun.
1961: Emily Greene Balch passed away. Balch was the first Quaker to win the Noble Prize for Peace. She won in 1946. One of those who nominated her was Judah Magnes of Hebrew University in
Jerusalem
. “During the 1930s she aided Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany. Initially she opposed WWII because she opposed all war in general, but she supported
US
entry into the war in 1941. Balch saw Nazism as the personification of evil and a threat to humanity that had to be stopped.”
1974: The National Council of Jewish Women pledged to work to help Syrian Jewry, calling
Syria
's acts against the Jews as "…degradation and inhuman restrictions."
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Menachem Begin warned
Egypt
that
Israel
might rescind the peace proposals giving all the Sinai back to
Egypt
if
Cairo
did not permit Israeli settlements to remain there. In that case, Begin added,
Israel
could demand territorial changes in 1967 borders. The cabinet, however, declared that there would be no more any new settlement activity in Sinai.
1990 (12th of Tevet, 5750): Shlomo Pines passed away. Born in 1908, he was a scholar of Jewish and Islamic philosophy, best known for his English translation of Maimonides' Guide to the Perplexed.
http://www.shlomopines.org.il/len/
1991: Egyptian newspapers reported today that President Hosni Mubarak warned Israel this week to stay out of the conflict with Iraq, saying he would revise his policies on the crisis if Israel became embroiled. Mr. Mubarak's comments reflected worries in many Arab countries that Israeli military involvement could transform the crisis into an Arab-Israeli dispute, splintering the anti-Iraqi Arab coalition. Egypt is the only Arab country formally at peace with Israel. "We will not permit an Israeli involvement, or a military involvement in the gulf crisis," the Egyptian leader told a gathering of writers and intellectuals, according to newspaper reports and people at the gathering. "I do not think Israel would get involved, but if it did, Egypt would take a different position."
1992: The French weekly Paris Match reported today that the second and final autopsy on the body of Robert Maxwell showed numerous bruises, indicating that the British publisher was probably beaten before his death. But that conclusion was disputed by one of the pathologists who conducted the autopsy in Israel.
1992: In an article entitled “For Young Readers, Picasso Not Bunnies” published today, Trish Hall describes the wacky, wonderful world of Maira Kalman, the Tel Aviv native who has become a popular children's book author and illustrator whose fans include a growing number of adults.
1992: Conservative columnist William Safire’s wrote a column entitled “Strongly Condemn” in which he took issue with the increasingly hostile policy the Bush is administration is pursuing towards the state of Israel.
1995: Gonen Segev replaced Moshe Shahal as Minister for Energy and Water Resources.
1996:Tony Bullimore, who was clinging to “a rigid-hulled inflatable boat” from the capsized Exide Challenger was rescued by crew members of the HMAS Adelaide. Bullimore was a Sephardic-Jewish yachtsman born at Bristol before the start of WW II.
1997:Opening day of the Red Sea International Music Festival. In what the sponsors call a move to foster peace in the Middle East, the Festival, for the first time will take place, in both Israel and Jordan.
2003:Amid reports of illegal activity by Prime Minister Sharon coming on the eve of Israeli election Haaretz is scheduled to publish a report today stating that Likud, which had once been projected to win 40 of the 120 seats in the election for Parliament on Jan. 28, now seems likely to win only 27, while the Labor Party could get 24.
2003:Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel has rebuffed Prime Minister Tony Blair's personal appeal to reconsider Israel's decision to keep Palestinian negotiators from attending a British-sponsored conference in London next week, officials said today. The Israeli decision was the result of terrorists attack in Tel Aviv on Sunday that has claimed the life of at least 22 Israelis. Groups allied with Chairman Arafat have taken credit for the attack.
2003: Tonight Prime Minister Sharon held a nationally televised news conference to assert that he was a victim of an ''attempt to seize power through lies.'' About 10 minutes into his speech, the chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Mishael Cheshin, ordered Israel's three television channels and two radio stations to halt their broadcasts. Seventy-nine year old
2004(15th of Tevet, 5764): Seventy-nine year old Nissim Ezekiel, an Indian born “Jewish poet, playwright, editor and art critic” who was a major cultural force in post-colonial India passed away today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/mar/09/guardianobituaries.india
2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank by Steve Oney.
2006: The Wolf Foundation announced today that an American, an Israeli and an Italian will receive prestigious Wolf Prizes this year. The prize which is to be awarded in a Jerusalem ceremony in May will be shared by Ada Yonath, a professor at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, and George Feher, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, the foundation said in a statement. Also, Italian artist Michelangelo Pistoletto will receive the 2007 Wolf Prize in the arts. Each prize is worth $100,000. Yonath, 67, was awarded the prize for her work in understanding the production of proteins. "Her work paves the way to dealing with the crucial issue of drug activity and resistance mechanisms," the statement said. Feher, 82, is to receive the award for his research on photosynthesis, "revealing the basic principles of light energy conversion in biology." Pistoletto, 73, will be honored for "his ability to come up with new possibilities and to encourage the application of imagination to artistic and social change." His work with various media establishes "a system for communication between art and every other human activity." The Israel-based foundation was established by Ricardo Wolf, a German-born inventor, diplomat and philanthropist who spent the last years of his life as
Cuba
's representative in
Israel
, where he died in 1981. The statement said prizes are awarded "for achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among peoples." Since 1978, 232 scientists and artists have received prizes.
2006 (9 Tevet): Yahrzeit of Ezra Hasofer and Nechemia.
2006 (9 Tevet): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Ezra HaNavi, Tosafist, Kabbalist, Teacher of the Ramban,.
2008: George W. Bush made his first trip to
Israel
as President of the
United States
. Arabs responded with a series of rocket attacks from
Gaza
.
2008: The first episode “The Jewish Americans” airs on PBS. The three episode series traces the history of the Jews in America starts with the arrival of the first 23 Sephardic Jews in New Amsterdam in 1654 and “ends with Maisyahu, the Chasidic hip-hop star, one of about six million Jews in America today.”
2009: Lillian Hellman’s “The Little Foxes” opens at the Shattered Globe Theatre.
2009: Dutch Jews are scheduled to hold a rally at
The Hague
in support of
Is