February 12
553: Byzantine Emperor Justinian ordered the public reading of the Greek translation to Parshat Hashavuah (weekly Torah portion) on Shabbat morning and prohibited Rabbis from giving drashot on the Torah portion.
1049: Beginning of the papacy of Leo IX, one of the major players in the creation of the Schism of 1054 that would result in the official split of Christianity into the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Over the next several centuries, Jewish communities would get caught in the cross-fire between these completing Christian sects resulting in death and destruction. One example was the Great Cossack Uprising that would pit Eastern Orthodox Ukrainians against their Polish Catholic masters. The worst example is World War I which started, in part, when the Tsar saw himself as the protector of the Serbs who were Orthodox against the Austrians who were Roman Catholics.
1130: Innocent II was elected Pope. He presided over the Second Council of the Latern which did not issue any canons aimed at the Jews. But it did issue one that forbade Christians from lending money for interest which would have a long-range impact on the Jews.
1481: The first Auto de Fe took place in
Seville
,
Spain
. Six Morrano men and six women were burned for allegedly practicing Judaism. These practices could include not eating pig - for whatever reason, washing hands before prayer, changing clothes on the Sabbath, etc. Over two thousand Inquisitions are said to have taken place in the Iberian Peninsula and its colonies. The number of victims in
Spain
alone is estimated at 39,912.
1486: Over 750 people would be mandated to participate on this very cold day as prisoners in an auto-de-fe in
Toledo
. They were forced to march barefooted and bareheaded through the streets. Many people came from the countryside to howl and scorn at the prisoners. Among some of the many stipulations of punishment, was the fining of 1/5 of their property, to which the funds went to battle the Muslims in
Granada
, as well as public self-flagellation over six consecutive Fridays.
1541: Santiago, Chile is founded by Pedro de Valdivia. One of those accompanying de Valdivia was a Converso named Rodrigo de Orgonos. Any “Jews” settling in the lands of the Inquisition would have been Conversos so lineage can be a difficult thing to establish.
1689: The Declaration of Rights which had been drawn by the Convention Parliament was finalized today. The Declaration created the legal fiction that would protect the rights of Protestants in England and pave the way for William and Mary to ascend to the throne. The latter event was in the best interest of England’s fledgling Jewish population.
1699:A committee consisting of António Gomes Serra, Menasseh Mendes, Alfonso Rodrigues, Manuel Nunez Miranda, Andrea Lopez, and Pontaleão Rodriguez signed a contract with Joseph Avis, a Quaker, for the construction of a building that would serve as a new synagogue in London at a cost of £2,750. Avis would later decline to collect his fee, on the ground that it was wrong to profit from building a house of God. In 1698 Rabbi David Nieto had taken charge of a congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews or Sephardim who met in a small synagogue in Creechurch Lane. A significant growth in the Jewish community had made it necessary to find larger quarters for the congregation. The result of this quest was this new construction which would eventually take place on a tract of land at Plough Yard in a section called Bevis Marks; hence the synagogue came to be known as the Bevis Marks Congreaton.
1737:Prince Carl Alexander, the duke of Württemberg, declared in a decree today "that the privy councillor of finance Joseph Süß Oppenheimer was a faithful servant of his prince and of the state, and was intent in every way upon the welfare of both, for which he deserved the thanks of all. Since instead he was persecuted by envy and ill-will to such an extent that attempts were even made to bring him into disfavor with the duke, the latter accorded him his especial protection and expressly forbade the continuation of such attacks." This was the Duke’s way of protecting Oppenheimer. The protection would end with the Duke’s death.
1804: German philosopher Immanuel Kant passed away. Like many other philosophers of the Enlightenment Kant had less than positive things to say about the Jews. While this should not be the full measure of the man he did “note in a lecture on practical philosophy, ‘Every coward is a liar; Jews for example, not only in business, but also in common life.’" In “German Idealism and the Jew, Michael Mack, a historian at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, argues there is a deep affinity between modern anti-Semitism and the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, perhaps the greatest thinker to emerge from the Enlightenment.” According to Mack, “for Kant, motives could only be good if they were not aimed at any material benefit. He saw Judaism as an inherently materialist religion, based upon a quid pro quo between God and His chosen people. In order to fully define the formal structures of his philosophy (autonomy, reason, morality and freedom), Kant almost unconsciously fantasized about the Jews as it’s opposite. He posited Judaism as an abstract principle that does nothing else but, paradoxically, desire the consumption of material goods.”
1809: Birthdate of Charles Darwin, the naturalist who developed The Theory of Evolution. For the most part Jewish leaders have been able to harmonize Darwin with the Bible. One of the exceptions is Rabbi Moshe Feinstein who opposed the theory of evolution and issued rulings forbidding the reading of text on evolution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_views_on_evolution#Jewish_views_in_reaction_to_Darwin
1809: Birthdate of Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the
United States
. Jews made up a comparatively miniscule part of the American population during the Age of Lincoln. When Lincoln was born there were approximately seven million people living the United States of whom approximately 2,000 were Jewish. By 1850, when Lincoln’s political career was extremely active, there were approximately 50,000 Jews living among a population of over 23 million Americans. In Illinois, the Jewish population could not have numbered much more than 200, most of whom lived in Illinois. By the time Lincoln was elected President, there were approximately 150,000 Jews living among 31,000,000 Americans. Of the 1,700,000 people living in “the Land of Lincoln,” approximately 1,500 were Jewish. Given these comparatively miniscule numbers, there was a surprising close connection between Lincoln and the Jewish people on both a personal and communal basis. At the personal level, Abraham Jonas of Quincy, Illinois, the brother of Joseph Jonas, the first Jewish settler of Cincinnati was one of Lincoln’s closest friends and earliest supporters. According to the City of Quincy Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, Jonas arrived in Quincy I838 and was the town’s first Jewish citizen. The friendship between Jonas and Lincoln began that same year and was to last for the next quarter of a century. Their personal bond was cemented by a politics when the two served together in the Illinois legislature during the 1840’s. Jonas and Lincoln were early members of the Republican Party and Jonas “handled arrangements for his friend’s arrival for the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debate in Quincy.” Jonas and his law partner, Henry Asbury, may have been the first two to “float” Lincoln’s name as Presidential candidate. When Horace Greely, the powerful New York newspaper publisher spoke in Quincy in December of 1858, the two proposed that the eastern powerbroker might want to consider Lincoln as candidate for the top spot on the Republican ticket in 1860. Jonas did go to the Republican convention in 1860 where “he worked the floor to help secure the nomination” for his long time personal and political friend. Louis Naphtali Dembitz a twenty-eight year old lawyer, civic leader and prominent member of the Louisville, KY. Jewish community was one of the three delegates who placed Lincoln’s name in nomination at the Republican Convention held in Chicago. Dembitz was the uncle of Louis Dembitz Brandeis who was four at the time of the convention and who would become the first Jewish Justice to sit on the Supreme Court. Abraham Kohn, City Clerk of Chicago, was another Jew who was an early supporter of Lincoln and who worked at the Republican Convention to secure his nomination. After Lincoln’s nomination, Kohn gave him a flag that included the following verse from the Book of Joshua, “Be strong and of good courage; be not affrighted, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
Other early, ardent supporters of Lincoln included the philanthropist Moses Dropsie, founder of Dropsie College and Sigmund Kaufman a German-Jewish newspaper publisher in New York “who worked furiously and successfully to deliver the German immigrant vote to Lincoln.” Kaufman also served as one of the electors for the State of New York and as such helped turn Lincoln’s popular vote lead into an Electoral College victory. In 1863, following the Battle of Chancellorsville, Lincoln visited the hospital bed of the mortally wounded hero Lt. Col Leopold Newman, and personally presented him with his commission of appointment as a brigadier general in the Union Army. At the communal level, Lincoln was the first President to make it possible for Rabbis to serve as military chaplains. He signed the 1862 Act of Congress which changed the law that had previously barred all but Christian clergymen from being chaplains.
Lincoln
showed his support for Jews in the face of European anti-Semitism. He appointed a Jew to serve as Counsel in Zurich as a way of letting the Swiss know that the United States government would not tolerate discrimination against American Jews doing business in Switzerland and that the United States Government did not look favorably on the discriminatory treatment of Swiss citizens who were Jewish. But Lincoln’s most famous moment in dealing with the Jews came when he countermanded Grant’s infamous Order #11. The vast majority of Jews were loyal supporters of the
Union
even in those dark days when the Copperheads and their allies called upon
Lincoln
to “let our wayward sisters depart in peace.” Of course,
Lincoln
came to be viewed as an American Moses who led the African-American Slaves to freedom. Ironically, Lincoln was killed during Pesach, the Jewish holiday of freedom that provided so much of the liberation motif for the work of the Great Emancipator.
1818: Bernardo O'Higgins signs the Independence of Chile near Concepción. According to the Virtual Jewis Library “The Inquisition was abolished with the establishment of Chilean independence in 1818. Many Jewish citizens or descendants of Converso families were involved in the country's struggle for independence, including General Jose Miguel Carrera, who traced his lineage back to Diego Garcia de Caceres. Carrera was nominated to be the first president of
Chile
, although Manuel Blanco Encalada actually became the Chilean leader. Diego Portales, father of the 1833 Chilean constitution, also claimed descent from
Caceres
. Many non-Jewish leaders of the revolution had close ties with Jewish individuals. The first president of the
Republic
of
Chile
, Bernard O'Higgins, spent time in the home of Juan Albano Peyreyra, possibly of Jewish ancestry.”
1849: An article published in Wetumpka Daily Standard published was critical of Judge Solomon Heydefeldt's plan to put an end to "unlimited slave immigration" in Alabama. Heydefeldt was no abolitionist. He was afraid that "the state would become impoverished through the uncontrolled 'dumping' of slaves in Alabama." His critic claimed that the Judge's plan would cause the price of slaves to soar and would deprive "the poor who hoped ... to become slave owners of any expectation of economic advancement.
1855: Birthdate of Yankev P. Adler, a native of the Russian Empire who, as Jacob Adler would gain fame as an actor and a star of the Yiddish Theatre in Odessa, London and New York City.
1855: Michigan State University was established. According to recent figures, MSU has 3,000 Jewish undergrads out of a total of 36,000 students and 500 Jewish grad students out of a total of 10,000 graduate students. MSU offers approximately 25 Jewish Studies courses as well as a Major in Jewish Studies. The university offers a study program in Israel and is home to a Hillel chapter.
1864: During the Civil War, "the Confederate Congress voted in secret to create "bodies for the capture destruction of the enemies' property." Officially known as the Bureau of Special and Secret Service, the unit was funded by the Department of State which was headed by Judah P. Benjamin who now "took on the most dangerous assignment Jefferson Davis had given him, that of spymaster."
1870: Women gained the right to vote in Utah Territory. At this time, the Watters family, Ichel and his new bride Augusta were active members of the community. According to one account, “Augusta thrived on the challenge of frontier life, becoming a hardy pioneer and eventually a mainstay of the Salt Lake City Jewish Community.
1873(15thof Shevat, 5633): Tu B’Shevat
1874: The Young Ladies’ Charitable Union is scheduled to host a fund raiser at the Lyceum Theatre for the Home for Aged Hebrews.
1877: It was reported today that the Ottoman government “will not press its condition regarding the treat of the Jews of Serbia.” [Editor’s note: This has little to do with the Jews and everything to do with the Great Powers jockeying for control over the Ottoman Empire. In an attempt to discredit the Constantinople Conference at which the great powers began slicing up the European portions of the empire, the Turks announced the adoption of a constitution that included a declaration of equal rights for all religious minorities in the Islamic Empire. This brief statement, which proved to be true, was the Porte’s way of saying that the Christians of Serbia would not have to grant equal rights to the Jews which the Sultan hoped would be a way of guaranteeing Serbian loyalty.]
1880(30th of Sh'vat, 5640): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1882: It was reported today that the Times of London has published an article written by a mysterious Russian woman known as “O.K.” in tone that offers an apology for the treatment of the Jews living in Russia. The veracity of this author is questionable since she also extols the virtues of Siberia which she described as a land of promise which will soon be over-run by Russian emigrants seeking to live there.
1883:The United States State Department sought Adolphus Simeon Solomons’ advice and assistance regarding the distribution of charity funds to Americans in Ottoman Palestine. Solomons was as a Sephardic Jew born in New York in 1826 who moved to Washington, DC where he made several influential friends and was important enough to have been offered the position of Governor of the District of Columbia by President U.S. Grant. Solomons did not accept the offer.
1884: Birthdate of Max Beckmann, German-born post-modernist painter
1885: Birthdate of vicious anti-Semite Julius Streicher, the Nazi leader who created such publications as Der Strumer
1886: Ha-Yom, the first Hebrew daily newspaper was published in St. Petersburg
1890: It was reported today that Rudolph Grossman, the assistant Rabbi at Temple Beth El has been elected president of newly form organization designed to bring aid to the poor Jews of the East Side from their wealthier coreligionists. Charles S. August has been elected Secretary.
1892: As New York public health officials start to deal with an outbreak of typhus it was reported that some of the first victims were fifty-seven Jewish men, women and children who had been “driven out of Russia” who finally made their way to Marseilles where they board the SS Massilia. They arrived in New York after twenty nine days at sea. These public health officials connect the outbreak of typhus with conditions aboard the ship and debilitated conditions of the immigrant passengers.
1893: It was reported today that at the University of Pennsylvania, Professor Jastrow has begun teaching a special course in Hebrew designed primarily for (Protestant) clergyman. (Editor’s note: Professor Jastrow is Morris Jastrow, Jr., who the librarian-in-chief at the school and the son of Marcus Jastrow, the rabbi at Philadelphia’s Rodeph Shalom.)
1894: “Ingersoll Praised and Censured” published today summarized the disagreement that Rabbi Joseph Silverman has with agnostic Robert Ingersoll over the latter’s views on Moses. Silverman does not blame Ingersoll for his mischaracterization of the Jewish sage because “The spirit of the Hebrew Scriptures can never be translated. A man, to read the Bible rightly must hot only understand the language in which it was written, but he must know the customs and traits of the people.”
1895: The Purim Association will sponsor a performance of Verdi’s “Falstaff” at the Metropolitan Opera House. The associated has been sponsored an event like this each at Purim time since 1868. Since 1874 each of these events has raised on the average of $15,000 in net proceeds which go to a variety of charities including Mt. Sinai Hospital, the Montefiore Home and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1895: The district of B’nai B’rth that includes the states of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia opened its annual convention in Atlanta, GA today.
1896: Herzl writes a "Literary Testament".
1897: In the course of his talk at the dedication exercise of the Hebrew Technical Institute, Police Commissioner Theodore Roosevelt explained that he had a duty to see to it that Herr Alwardt, the German anti-Semite could speak publicly and that he was fully protected by the police. To that end, Roosevelt “selected a cordon of forty officers to preserve the peace, and they were all Hebrews, and what is more, they did preserve the peace.” (Editor’s Note: This a year, an episode of “Blue Bloods” a television show featuring Tom Sellick as the NYC Police Commissioner drew on this event to resolve part of it plot line.)
1897: Birthdate of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. Known as "Czar Lepke," Buchalter was a product of the
Brooklyn
underworld. During the 1920's he formed the notorious gang called "Murder Incorporated." The gang specialized in the protection racket. They began with furriers and leather goods and eventually branched out into the entire garment industry. During the 1930's, Murder Incorporated was being a small fortune by the movie studios in
Hollywood
. Lepke's two decade long reign of terror came to and end when Thomas Dewey went after a variety of gangsters during the late 1930's and 1940's. Lepke was convicted of murder and electrocuted in March, 1944. Yes, there were other Jewish gangsters. But they were a small part of the Jewish population and their criminal activities were never a source of pride.
1897: It was reported today that Secretary Edward T. Devine has said that “The Department of Charities finds no material increase of desitutiion this year…except among the” Jews because so many of them worked in the garment making industry which is in a slump. The Department sends all of the “destitute” Jews to the United Hebrew Charities which takes care of them. (These comments came during a debate about the advisability of providing free food to the poor, something Devine and others opposed)
1897: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El delivered the opening prayer at today’s dedication of the new building that will be part of the Hebrew Technical Institute on Stuyvesant Street.
1898: Professor C.H. Toy delivered the second in a series of lectures on “The Dawn of Literature” entitled “The Dawn of Literature in Babylonia and Egypt” which included numerous comparisons between these two cultures and the literature created by the Jews that is preserved in the Bible.
1899: Among the bills introduced in the New York State Legislature seeking tax exemptions was one brought forward by Mr. Sanders, “exempting the real estate now owned or which may hereafter be acquired by the Beth Israel Hospital Association in the City of New Yorkk”
1901: Herzl meets Lady Battersea, Rothschild's cousin in the apartment of Israel Zangwil.
1903(15thof Shevat, 5663): Tu B’Shevat
1909: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded. Henry Moskowitz a Jewish physician, and civil rights activist, was one of the six co-founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Jewish attorney Jack Greenberg played a prominent role in one of the most famous moments in the history of the N.A.A.C.P. He was Assistant Counsel from 1949 to 1961 for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and then, from 1961 to 1984, he succeeded Thurgood Marshall as Director Counsel. Greenberg was one of the attorneys who argued Brown v. Board of Education before the United States Supreme Court as co-counsel for the plaintiffs with Thurgood Marshall.
1912(24thof Shevat, 5672): Louis Heilprin, the Hungarian born historian and encyclopedia editor who was a follower of Lajos Kossuth passed away. He was part of an intellectual family including his brother Angelo, his grandfather Pinchas and his father Michael who was an editor for the American Cyclopedia and a contributor to The Nation.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0717F63C5813738DDDAD0994DA405B828DF1D3
1915: Birthdate of Canadian actor Lorne Greene. Greene’s most famous role was that Ben “Pa” Cartwright on Bonanza. Considering the fact that Little Joe was also played by a Jewish actor, half of America’s favorite cowboy family were MOT- “The Ponderosa” as western homeland for the Jews.
1916: Birthdate of Dutch born actor Max Geldray. Born in Holland and living in France and touring under such names as "Mac Geldray and his Mouth-Accordion Band", Van Gelder fled to England during the early days of WWII and was injured participating in the Normandy landings in 1944. Tragically, his sister died in a concentration camp during the war. After the war Geldray continued his career as a jazz harmonica player. He was part of the original cast of the 1950's radio show The Goon Show sharing the stage with Peter Sellers. He stayed on the show for its entire run of nine years. Afterwards, he retired to
California
, playing at gigs in
Reno
and
Los Angeles
, later volunteering at the
Betty
Ford
Center
and similar institutions. He passed away in 2004.
1922: Achille Ratti is formally installed as Pope Pius XI. Early in his papacy, Pius did sign concordats with various fascist governments. But he must have had a change of heart. By the time he died he spoken out against fascism and racism and called for measures to protect Jews .
1923: Twenty-five year old Gene Barry (born Eugene Klass) married Betty Claire Kalb
1924: George Gershwin's ''Rhapsody in Blue'' premiered in
New York City
.
1924: George Kaufman's "Beggar on Horseback" premiered in New York City.
1925:”The Estonian government passed a law pertaining to the cultural autonomy of minority peoples. This was a logical step forward in the national policies of the Estonian Republic. The Jewish community quickly prepared its application for cultural autonomy. Statistics on Jewish citizens were compiled. They totaled 3,045, fulfilling the minimum requirement of 3000 for cultural autonomy. In June 1926 the Jewish Cultural Council was elected and Jewish cultural autonomy was declared. The administrative organ of this autonomy was the Board of Jewish Culture, headed by Hirsch Aisenstadt until it was disbanded in 1940.”
1925: After arriving in New York yesterday, Dr. Chaim Weizmann reports on the vibrant condition of the economy in Palestine and of “the numerous business opportunities of which Americans may take advantage.” Weizmann said that while in the United States he will be seeking a loan of $2,000,000 at seven per cent interest designed to pay for development in Tel Aviv and four large near-by settlements. The government in Palestine had already given its approval for Weizmann to try and raise the funds.
1927(10th of Adar I, 5687): J. Engel, a well-known Jewish composer died in Tel Aviv today at the age of 58.
1929: “The Christian and the Moslem communities of Palestine were urged to lend their best cooperation to the efforts of the Jewish people in the rebuilding of the Holy Land by John Haynes Homes, pastor of the New York Community church, was the guest of honor at a reception given to him today by the municipality of Tel Aviv at City Hall.
1929: Birthdate of Gyorgy Braun, the native of Mateszalka, Hungary, who survived the Holocaust and made a new life for himself in Los Angeles as George Brown
1930: Birthdate of Arlen Specter, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. During the twentieth century, most Jewish office holders were Democrats. Specter was unusual because he rose to prominence as a Republican. Today, there are a record number of Jews serving in the U.S. Senate. For most Americans, Jewish public officials are such an accepted fact of life that both Senators from
California
are Jewish. And places like Minnesota, hardly a state with a large bloc of Jewish voters, elect Jews to Congress (As reported by Peter Jackson)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/former-pennsylvania-senator-arlen-specter-dies-at-82/
1932: Birthdate of economist and author Julian Simon.
1932: Birthdate of pianist Jerome Lowenthal.
1935: The first Palestine-owned ships of modern times will start service here today, restoring to the Jewish people a profession in which they have had little part since the ancient Phoenicians. Two new ships Mount Zion and Tel Aviv sail between Palestine, Constananza and Trieste. While the ships are of “British naval design” they will have Jewish skippers and crews.
1936: Birthdate of American actor Paul Shenar described as being of Turkish and Jewish ancestry. Count this as a maybe.
1936: Birthdate of Binyamin Fuad Ben-Eliezer, a native of Iraq who made Aliyah in 1950. He served in the IDF from 1954 through 1984 and then entered into a successful political career that included service as the Minister of Defense and Deputy Prim Minister.
1938: German troops entered Austria in an event known as the Anschluss. After the war, Austrians tried to present themselves as the first victims of the Nazis. The cheering crowds that greeted Hitler at that time tell a different story. The Austrians were quick to adopt the German attitude toward Austrian Jews.
1938: Birthdate of author Judy Blume. “Her most famous book, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; focused on an 11-year-old girl being brought up by Jewish and non-Jewish parents, and the difficulties she faced in trying to decide which religion to follow.” Blume grew up with two Jewish parents in
Elizabeth
,
New Jersey
.
1938: Hitler met with Chancellor Schuschinigg of
Austria
, claiming that the acts of
Austria
were treasonous. Hitler put forth extreme written demands designed to make way for Nazism in
Austria
. Hitler threatened to end a civil relationship between their two countries.
1940: The British War Cabinet discussed the 1939 White Paper to limit Jewish land purchase in
Palestine
. Despite a protest from Churchill, the land limitation regulations would be put into force.
1941: The Nazis established the Jewish Council for
Amsterdam
under Abraham Asscher, prominent
Amsterdam
businessman and David Cohen, a professor of ancient history at the Municipal University of Amsterdam.
1941: Occupation Police arrested the "Jewish Foursome"
1942(25th of Shevat, 5702): The Nazis rounded up and murdered 3,000 Jews in the Ukrainian town of Brailov. The Jewish community in the Shtetel of Brailov can be traced back at least to the start of the 17th century. After the war Brailov was the subject of a 52-minute documentary called “Judenfrei: A Shtetl Without Jews.”
1942: Birthdate of Ehud Barak, Prime Minister of Israel.
1942(25th of Shevat, 5702): Avraham Stern was killed after being captured by British authorities in Tel Aviv. Stern was the leader of Lechi a Hebrew acronym for Lohamei Cherut Israel, "Fighters for the Freedom of Israel", לח"י - לוחמי חירות ישראל) also known as the Stern Gang. The Polish born Stern had become progressively more violent as he moved from the Haganah, to the Irgun, to his own Stern Gang. Stern reportedly approached the German and Italian regimes offering to swap helping them in defeating the British for the creation of a Jewish state. Needless to say, the leaders of the Yishuv disowned Stern and his gang, labeling them as terrorists operating in a way unacceptable to the Jewish community.
1943: Aizik Feder smuggled a letter out of Drancy, France, to his wife. "Tomorrow I am leaving. . . Courage! Courage! Courage!" The next day he is one of 1,000 Jews sent to
Auschwitz
. He and 311 others were tattooed with a number. The rest were killed. Only 20 of the 311 would survive the war.
1944: Incendiary bombs that exploded simultaneously in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv tonight damaged immigration offices in all three cities. The bombings were thought to be the work of those who sought to destroy the buildings where the anti-Jewish immigration policies are given practical application. “Responsible Jewish” leaders expressed their disapproval of the “criminal methods of fighting the immigration issue.”
1947(22nd of Shevat, 5707): Dr. Kurt Lewin, German born social psychologist, passed away. A believer in Gestalt psychology, Lewin, a veteran of the Kaiser’s Army, came to United States in 1933 and became a U.S. citizen in 1940.
1947(22nd of Shevat, 5707): Moses Gomberg passed away. Born in Russia, he was educated in the United States and became a chemistry professor at the University of Michigan. “In 1896–1897 he took a year's leave to work as a postdoctoral researcher with Baeyer and Thiele in Munich and with Victor Meyer in Heidelberg, where he successfully prepared the long-elusive tetraphenylmethane.”
1949: An unidentified aircraft bombed Jerusalem. Based on various sources the plane might have been Egyptian or British.
1950: Albert Einstein warned against the building of the hydrogen bomb.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that 20 persons were injured in the course of a Communist demonstration held in Tel Aviv by the Israel-USSR Friendship League. Skirmishes broke out, outside the previously bombed Soviet Legation, between Communists and Israelis outraged by the recent vicious anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli Soviet campaign. The Soviet Ambassador, Mr. Pavel Yershov, received Mr. S. Mikunis and Dr. Moshe Sneh, in the presence of reporters, an unusual diplomatic occurrence. Israeli police arrested 27 persons in connection with the bombing of the Soviet Legation.
Moscow
radio accused Israeli police of a "clear connivance" in the bombing.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that in his address to UN officers, Syrian Colonel Ghassan Shabib, a senior Israeli-Syrian Mixed Armistice Commission delegate had declared, "This country has no room for both peoples. There should be either Jews or Arabs."
1956: Birthdate of Paula Zahn, CNN news anchor
1969: Birthdate of
Brooklyn
born film director Darren Aronofsky
1973(10th of Adar I, 5733): British composer Benjamin Frankelpassed away at the age of 67. Born to Polish parents who had moved to England, the first major work to bring Frankel to wider public attention was the Violin Concerto dedicated " In memory of the six million'", a reference to the Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the
US
Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, called on
Israel
to cease all settlement activities in the administered areas and dismantle the existing ones in the Rafiah salient.
1980(25th of Shevat, 5740): Muriel Rukeyser, poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism, passed away. “Her poem To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century (1944), on the theme of Judaism as a gift, was adopted by the American Reform and Reconstructionist movements for their prayer books, something Rukeyser said ‘astonished’ her, as she had remained distant from Judaism throughout her early life.”
1986: After spending eight years in Soviet prisons and labor camps, human rights activist Anatoly Scharansky was released. The amnesty deal was arranged by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan at a summit meeting three months earlier. Scharansky was imprisoned for his campaign to win the right for Russian Jews, officially forbidden to practice Judaism, to emigrate from the USSR. Convicted of treason and agitation, Soviet authorities also labeled him an American spy. After his release, he immigrated to Israel, where he was given a hero's welcome. Later, as a member of Israel's parliament, he was an outspoken defender of Russian Jews.
1990: In the following article entitled “As Jerusalem Labors to Settle Soviet Jews, Native Israelis Slip Quietly Away,” Joel Brinkley describes Israel’s attempts to deal with the challenge of Yoradim.
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/11/world/as-jerusalem-labors-to-settle-soviet-jews-native-israelis-slip-quietly-away.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
1991: In the early morning hours Iraq carried out its 13th Scud attack. The Scud was hit by the Patriot over a populated section of Tel Aviv and flaming missile parts slammed into the city. At least seven people were lightly injured.
1991: The Knesset passed a law whereby a Knesset member who changed political parties while still able to serve and vote in the Knesset itself, could not be made a Minister or a deputy minister and could not be promised a seat in the next Knesset.
1994(1st of Adar, 5754): Rosh Chodesh Adar
2004: Mattel announced the split of Barbie and Ken. Barbie and Ken were named for the children of Jewish businesswoman Ruth Handler, the guiding light behind Mattel who gave the world these iconic toys.
2006: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Lovers & Players by Jackie Collins (Jewish father, Anglican mother)
2007: Bar-Ilan University is resisting pressure to fire history professor Ariel Toaff for writing a book arguing that there is a factual basis to some of the blood libels against the Jews in Europe in the Middle Ages, university president Moshe Kaveh's media consultant said today.
2008: The 12th New York Sephardic Jewish Festival continues with showings “Italian Jewish History & Identity,” two programs of documentaries, television shorts, and fiction films exploring little-known aspects of Italian Jewish history and identity presented by Centro Primo Levi
2008: James L. Kugel, a professor of Hebrew at
Harvard
University
from 1982 to 2003, discusses How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now at the D.C. Jewish Community Center.
2008: The social component of the Oscar award season kicked off for <i style="mso-bidi-font-